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cesses, it was made to yield, that a strong law was passed, to pre- 
vent the further digging for this substance, lest the shore should be 
so weakened, that it would not be able to resist against the violence 
of the waves. In the year 1515, however, Charles V. harassed by 
the petitions of the poor, who had no other means of obtaining fuel, 
was again obliged to permit it to be dug. 
Mr. Tooke informs us, that in Siberia there are great plenty of 
morasses, and of various magnitudes. Thus the northern verge of 
Siberia, towards the shores of the Frozen Ocean, for several hundred 
versts in width, is one prodigious watery morass, grown over with 
moss, and entirely destitute of wood, and which, in summer, is only 
thawed to the depth of about a span*. In the interior of the empire 
we meet with smaller ; and many of the forests have a swampy 
bottom. He describes them as— 1st, Simply low watery land;— 
2d, Swamps, which yield turf formed out of the moss, and even at 
times produce a little hay ; — 3d, Bottomless morasses, which appear 
to be lakes grown over : they frequently will bear neither man nor 
beast ; — 4th, Moss-morasses, the deep and useless moss of which will 
permit neither grass nor a shrub to grow, or at most, only a few 
wretched low sticks of fir, &c. which presently wither and die. They 
are absolutely unprofitable ; or at least they are held to be sof . 
Dr. Woodward observes, that marsh or turf earth, containing in 
it nuts, twigs of trees, shrubs, grass, sedge, &c. is found in various 
parts of England. He particularizes several places, where it is found 
to abound very much. He obtained it from Hampstead Heath, 
and from Godaiming, in Surrey. At Wilmestow, near Knutsford, 
in Cheshire, it lay uppermost in the moss, and next the surface ; 
and seemed to be made up only of the shivers, or husks, and other 
parts oi juli of hazel, alder, poplar, &c. There is also great quan- 
tities of this kind of turf in the northern parts of Yorkshire, and in 
* Pallas’s Travels, vol. ill. p. 23. 
View of the Russian Empire, &c. by William Tooke, F. R. S. London, ISOO, p. 77. 
