ALLUVIAL DIVISION. 
231 
for on high mountains, where water is so plentifully condensed as to preserve constant wetness, 
the sphagnum grows vigorously. When a plantation of these vegetables is formed on a low¬ 
land bottom, the parent plants, after producing and maturing their seeds, die, and form a soil 
for their offspring to grow upon ; for, as it has been long ago ascertained that some vegetables 
can grow without being rooted in earth, it is here found, that dead moss answers all the pur¬ 
poses of a soil for the new generation of moss to grow upon. After a while, this crop of 
plants dies, and adds to the increase of the vegetable matter beneath ; and thus, from year to 
year, the process goes on, the old plants decaying, and forming a soil for the seeds they left 
to sprout in; until, by degrees, a bog of moss be formed. And this happens, because the 
plant which had lived in water does not very speedily corrupt in it, but continues to accumu¬ 
late layer upon layer. It hence follows, that the depth of the bog will be proportional to the 
number of successive decays of these swampy productions, and to the circumstances favorable 
to their thriftiness. 
“ In its fresh and living state, it retains water like a sponge; and, on account of its being 
so retentive of moisture, it becomes a soil for aquatic plants of various sorts, which absorb 
nourishment from the water, and other matters inherent in the moss. These vegetables taking 
root, growing in the peat, and decaying there, give to it the mingled appearance of roots, 
leaves, stalks, branches, bark, trees, and other extraneous substances, so frequently blended 
with it. 
' “ When peat is left to itself, to grow in the natural way, it frequently rises many feet above 
the original surface of earth; and the stratum continues to enlarge and thicken, as long as 
there is water enough to keep the moss alive. When this fails the plants die, and the process 
stops; for, after it is raised considerably above the level of the springs that feed it, the rain 
of the season is neither regular nor copious enough to supply the demand both of it and the 
plants rooted on it; they consequently perish. Therefore, the ditching of swamps and mea¬ 
dows where the sphagnum grows, will drain off its requisite supply of water, and quickly 
destroy it; and it is accordingly observed, that where such low lands are, by art, rendered 
fit for manuring, pasture, or tillage, the growth of peat is stopped, and a sward of grasses is 
formed above the inflammable matters, which is thereafter wholly concealed from sight, and 
is never to be seen until after the sod is dug away. 
“ As the peat is thus formed, layer over layer, in the course of successive vegetations, it 
can be easily explained how trunks of trees, fossil wood, and bodies and bones of animals, 
came to be buried so deep below the present surface; because, at the same time when the 
trees fell, and animals died, in the places where they are now found, they were upon the top, 
and, by the perpetual growth of the plants around, they have, in many places, become 
covered to a great depth. 
“ If there is any difference between peat and turf, it consists in the degree of putrefaction, 
to which the former has been subjected more completely than the latter; and has lost, there¬ 
fore, more of a vegetable appearance, and become more completely divested of its organic 
nature. As the other vegetables growing in the sphagnum have, each of them, somewhat of 
peculiar qualities, it must follow, that turf, when chemically examined, will afford a greater 
