199 
Dr. Plott, in his mention of the floating islands of Kinson Pool, 
in Staffordshire, points out plainly the na ure of the substances with 
which these floating islands are originally composed* He says, 
“ Of a kind of ’stringy bituminous earth (roots and oily substances 
being very buoyant) the floating islands so much talked of and 
admired in many parts of the world, are most certainly constituted, 
whereof there are two about twenty feet broad, but about thirty oi 
perhaps forty feet long, in Kinson Pool, which. An. 1680, began, in 
March, to move from under the hill, on the N.M'. side of the pool, 
and came together, like the smiplegades, first to the S. W. corner, 
where, after they had continued about three weeks, they began to 
move again, and were come in May (when I was there) to the S. E. 
corner, lying just in the passage of the water, out of the pool, towards 
the mill. I was also told of such in Aqualat Meer. ^ 
The only opinion we have now to examine is one which from 
the abilities, and opportunities of observation, of its ingenious au- 
thor, must claim our serious attention. The hypothesis to which 
I allude is that of Dr. Anderson, than whom few have possessed 
greater opportunities of making observations on this substance, 
or have endeavoured with more zeal to employ those observations 
for the public good. He candidly remarks, that, after long an 
attentive observation, he has only been able to fix upon one ac 
respecting this subject, which seems to be incontestibly Foved- 
that moss has been produced by a gradual accretion, and has not 
been created at the beginning of the world, in the state we now 
find it. r • f 
Dissatisfied with previous hypotheses respecting the formation ot 
peat-moss, particularly with that which supposes it to be entire ) 
formed of wood ; that which supposes that there may be some m 
of extracts from the wood, somewhat of the nature of tan, w 
* The Natural History of Staffordshire, p. 114. 
