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GEOLOGY OF THE FIRST DISTRICT. 
In his report,* he was the first to make known the true origin of peat or turf, the nature and 
origin of which had before been misunderstood.! Speaking of peat as an alluvion, he says, 
“ This is frequently of an inflammable nature, and answers very well for fuel. When used 
for burning, it is called peat or turf. If employed in fertilizing the ground, it is termed 
swamp manure. The true history of this substance has not been generally well understood, 
for it has been commonly classed with mineral substances, though Mr. Kirwan, who retains it 
in his mineralogy ! (Elements, &c. Part 3, Sp. 11 and 12), has removed it from the class of 
earths, where it had been placed before, to the class of inflammables. ‘ There are,’ says he, 
‘ two sorts of inflammable substances known by the name of peat. The first and principal is 
of a brown or black color, found in a moory ground, and when fresh, of a viscid consistence, 
but hardens by exposure to the air. It consists of clay, mixed with calcareous earth and pyrites, 
and sometimes contains common salt. While soft, it is formed into oblong pieces, and the 
pyritaceous and stony matters are separated. When distilled, it affords water, acid, oil, and 
volatile alkali, and its ashes contain a small quantity of fixed alkali. They are either white 
or red, according as it contains more or less ochre or pyrites. It is found in Scotland, Hol¬ 
land and Germany. Another sort is found in Newberry, in Berkshire. It contains but little 
earth, but consists chiefly of wood, branches, twigs, roots of trees, with leaves, grass, straw, 
and weeds.’ ‘ Turf consists of mould interwoven with the roots of vegetables. When these 
roots are of the bulbous kind, or in large proportion, they form the looser and worst kind of 
turf; but when mixed with a considerable proportion of peat, form what is called stone-turf. 
It at first hardens, but at last crumbles, by long exposure to the air.’ 
“ An accidental occurrence satisfied the mind of the commissioner, as to the particular 
plant entering largely into the constitution of peat bogs. Some time in the year 1786, as he 
was travelling in the western parts of Scotland, after his return from the Highlands, in com¬ 
pany with two of his friends, they directed their walk on foot from Greenock across the 
country to Paisley. During this excursion, they crossed an extensive bog of peat or turf, 
not far to the westward of this town ; and there remarked for the first time, that the upper¬ 
most stratum of peat consisted of small plants, which, though dead, were in a state of entire 
preservation. Their particular shape, their genus and species, could be plainly distinguished. 
The principal among them was the Sphagnum palustre, which, upon examination, constituted 
almost the whole of that deep and extensive bog. On examining beds of turf in America, 
the same observation has been verified, by numerous observations of these plants, in their 
living as well as decayed state. He thinks himself warranted in concluding the basis of peat 
and turf to be the sort of moss called by Linneus, Sphagnum palustre (Sp. Plantar, p. 1570), 
‘which,’ that author says, ‘grows in the deep bogs and fens of Europe.’ 
“ This plant delights to grow in wet, low, or swampy places, and requires for its support a 
plentiful supply of water. It will also thrive in elevated situations, if sufficiently moistened; 
• Vide Medical Repository, New-York, 1800, Vol. 1, pp. 279, 431; Vol. 3, p. 435; Vol. 5, p. 212. f Ib. Vol. 1, p. 432. 
X The term mineral at the present time includes all natural inorganic substances, and peat as an organic combustible alluvion. 
