a well known inflammable substance, used in many parts of the world as fuel. There are two species:

1. A yellowish-brown or black peat, found in moorish grounds in Scotland, Holland, and Germany.—When fresh, it is of a viscid consistence, but hardens by exposure to the air. It consists, according to Kirwan, of clay mixed with calcareous earth and pyrites; sometimes also it contains common salt. While soft, it is formed into oblong pieces for fuel, after the pyritaceous and stony matters are separated. By distillation it yields water, acid, oil, and volatile alkali; the ashes containing a small proportion of fixed alkali; and being either white or red according to the proportion of pyrites contained in the substance.

The oil which is obtained from peat has a very pungent taste; and an empyreumatic smell, less fetid than that of animal substances, more so than that of mineral bitumens: it congeals in the cold into a pitchy mass, which liquefies in a small heat: it readily catches fire from a candle, but burns less vehemently than other oils, and immediately goes out upon removing the external flame: it dissolves almost totally in rectified spirit of wine into a dark brownish red liquor.

2. The second species is found near Newbury in Berkshire. In the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1757, we have an account of this species; the substance of which is as follows:

Peat is a composition of the branches, twigs, leaves, and roots of trees, with grass, straw, plants, and weeds, which having lain long in water, is formed into a mass so soft as to be cut through with a sharp spade. The colour is a blackish brown, and it is used in many places for firing. There is a stratum of this peat on each side the Kennet, near Newbury in Berks, which is from about a quarter to half a mile wide, and many miles long. The depth below the surface of the ground is from one foot to eight. Great numbers of entire trees are

not only marry their sons at 14 and 15 years of age, but even at eight or nine, and that for the sake of having a workwoman the more in the person of the son's wife: By the same rule, they try to keep their daughters single as long as possible, because they don't choose to lose a workwoman. These premature marriages are of little use to the state; for which reason, methods to get the better of this custom have been fought for, and I hope will soon take place: the bishops are attentive to prevent these marriages as much as possible, and have of late succeeded greatly in their endeavours. It is only the inhabitants of some of the provinces in Russia that still retain this bad custom."

(B) The Russians have generally dark complexions and hair: they also wear their beards, and cut their hair short. are found lying irregularly in the true peat. They are chiefly oaks, alders, willows, and firs, and appear to have been torn up by the roots; many horse's heads, and bones of several kinds of deer, the horns of the antelope, the heads and tusks of boars, and the heads of beavers, are also found in it. Not many years ago an urn of a light brown colour, large enough to hold about a gallon, was found in the peat-pit in Speen moor, near Newbury, at about 10 feet from the river, and four feet below the level of the neighbouring ground. Just over the spot where the urn was found, an artificial hill was raised about eight feet high; and as this hill consisted both of peat and earth, it is evident that the peat was older than the urn. From the side of the river several semicircular ridges are drawn round the hill, with trenches between them. The urn was broken to shivers by the peat-diggers who found it, so that it could not be critically examined; nor can it be known whether anything was contained in it.

For the mode of converting moss or peat into a valuable manure, see Agriculture Index.