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

The first is 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. Whilst soft, it is formed into oblong pieces for fuel, after the pyritaceous and stony matters are separated from it. 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, but 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; and in rectified spirit of wine it dissolves almost totally into a dark brownish-red liquor. 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 soft enough to be cut through with a sharp spade. The colour is a blackish brown, and it is used in many places for fuel. There is a stratum of this peat on each side of the Kennet, near Newbury in Berks, which is from about a quarter to half a mile in width, and many miles in length. The depth below the surface of the ground is from one foot to eight. Great numbers of entire trees are found lying irregularly in the true peat. These are chiefly oaks, alders, willows, and firs, and appear to have been torn up by the roots; many horses' 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 embedded in it.