86 
Annual Be port of the 
weighed fifty-one pounds to the cubic foot. As most, if not all the 
extensive bogs of this state are submerged, and as it is impracticable 
to drain them to any great depth, generally the} r must be worked 
in this submerged condition their full depth, at the minimum 
of cost for excavation and dredging, and in large quantities, (as it 
can only be prosecuted in summer) to warrant reliance upon a full 
and permanent supply, and at a moderate cost of machinery, cap¬ 
able of preparing 500,000 tons per annum. By a process exclusively 
mechanical, combining the well known, long-tried hydraulic exca¬ 
vator, all expense for removing brush or grass from the surface of 
the bog is avoided, the excavation and dredging is performed to any 
depth of the deposit, removing roots, stone or sand. It is exca¬ 
vated, disintegrated, washed free from loose sand and floated by an 
hydraulic current as in hydraulic mining. It is in this state of 
suspension, pumped or sucked up to, and through a mill fit¬ 
ted to grind the peat in a volume of water, to destroy all fibre 
and break up all air cells (there being an average of 93 per 
cent, of water to 7 per cent, of peat) in the volume sucked up 
from the bed. When ground, it passes by hydraulic current through 
large wooden pipes laid on the surface of the marsh or bog, to the 
adjacent dry land, and is forced into a large condenser, formed by 
laying on the ground a thick foundation of brush, covered with 
marsh hay, circular in form. Poles from eighteen to twenty-four 
feet in length are set perpendicular around this foundation, closely 
enclosing it, and a small circular area in the center, formed in the 
same manner as the outside. Inside, verticle and horizontal pipes 
formed of bamboo are placed, to drain every cubic foot of the con¬ 
denser. 
The peat precipitates by means of the rapid drainage, until 
the condenser is full of precipitated peat surrounding these drain¬ 
age rods, and as the mass shrinks from the sides and drainage rods 
and becomes compact, the rods are then removed, leaving air pas¬ 
sages through the mass, through which evaporation goes on until 
the whole is as dry as the surrounding atmosphere. 
As the volume of peat and water pass from the mill under 
pressure, all remaining sand being disengaged by grinding will be 
deposited in the bottom of the pipe, the same as in sluice-mining, 
where by rifles the gold-dust is deposited, and in this case the de-, 
posit is constantly removed, and the rapid drainage of the water by 
