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form in which it now appears, at the creation of the world ; the vast 
quantity in which it was found, and its extreme utility, seemed to 
give some countenance to this opinion. Some have supposed it to 
have originated in the deposition of a bituminous mud by the waters 
of the sea, which, they imagined, must, in very remote periods, have 
inundated all those parts, in which peat is so plentifully found. The 
strong resemblance which this matter frequently bears to the remains 
of trees and other vegetables, induced others to attribute its forma- 
tion to the overwhelming of vast forests, by inundations of the sea ; 
they accounting for the depth at which it is found, as well as for its 
superincumbent strata, from the quantity of earthy matter which so 
violent a rush of waters must carry with it, and deposit on those 
tracts on which it rested. Others have conceived, that it must have 
proceeded from the forests which were prostrated at the time of the 
deluge recorded by Moses ; and that it derived its inflammability from 
some peculiar change which they underwent at that period. 
Schoockius was decidedly of opinion, that peat was entirely of 
mineral origin, and says, that the straws, twigs, and a thousand 
other things, which appear to be blended accidentally with it, 
have been formed there by nature ; and adds, if any one demand 
how these things came in the deep recesses of the earth, I will tell 
him, in the first place, that they may be generated there, in the 
manner spoken of by Pliny; and secondly, that the bituminous 
filaments possess the power, by their various dispositions, of assuming 
these forms. Thus he also accounts for the formation of the sub- 
stances resembling trees, branches, and pieces of roots, which are 
frequently found among the peat. These, he supposes, have grown 
there, in the same manner as other fossil substances. A confirmation 
of this opinion he derived, from the circumstance of several of the 
trunks possessing, not a round, but an oval shape ; a form which, 
he observes, ordinary trees never assume. He at the same time 
acknowledges, that the resemblance which the fossil trees bear to 
