Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

PEAT. 117
to be unaffected by water when once dried, very dense
and heavy, and burning with a glow of heat and a bright
flame almost equal to coal, so as nearly to supersede the
necessity of any other light in the cottages. The depth
is also very great, varying from ten even to twenty feet.
The superior quality arises from the moisture of the soil
and the climate, whence follows the thorough decompo-
sition of the vegetables from which it is formed. Not-
withstanding all the contradictory matter that has been
brought forward, and the long-winded volumes which
have been written on this most simple subject, I hope I
need scarcely tell you that peat is the produce of vege-
tables, decomposed, not putrified. Hence it belongs ex-
clusively to regions and situations that are moist and not
of too high a temperature. It may be formed of any
plant whatever that will grow and die in such places, and
therefore it is not the produce of trees only, as has been
often said. In the seats of ancient forests, it is often
found, partially formed at least, if not entirely, from
decayed wood :
but it is far more common in low marshy
grounds, and on the borders of lakes where trees never
grew, and it occurs also in the wet parts of mountain
declivities and open moorlands, as well as in flat or
marshy tracts on the sea shore. It is also subject to be
transferred from place to place when in a fluid state ; and
hence it may be distingwished into varieties, to which
may be applied the names of, mountain, forest, marsh,
lake, maritime, and transported peat.
Peat is always more compact below than above,
because the decomposition of the plants is there most
complete : it grows, not because it is a living substance,
as has been idly said, but because the plants which pro-
duce it are always growing; the annuals dying to be
reproduced from seeds, the perennials shedding, at every