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formed, should be in the most decayed state ; but the bottom oroldest strata are not accessible, as the water rushes furiously out,on those who attempt to take up the bottom peat. A small pieceof this, however, was procured. When thoroughly dry, it wasas hard and as brittle as a bit of pit-coal, though not of such aclear black colour. By friction, its surface assumed a kind ofpolish. When plunged into a vessel of water, it sunk, and onecorner rested gently on the bottom. It seemed to have little af-finity with water. After a piece had lain in the water for a day,the water was not discoloured, and the peat but a little softened,and that only externally. Though it appeared a mass of rottenmatter, the microscope show r ed some whitish undecomposedfibres in it. A part was put into a fire, and it submitted to igni-tion, with as great reluctance as the hardest pit-coal; but whenfully ignited by the force of the heat around it, it burnt with apretty brisk white flame. Wheft lifted out of the fire, in thisstate, and placed on the hot iron plate at the side of the grate,the burning ceased, and could not again be revived till it was re-placed in the middle t>f a coal fire. This, and the former expe-riment by fire, prove that the hypothesis of the late learned DrWalker, which holds forth, that peat moss, the farther it is ad-vanced in corruption and decay, becomes more bituminous andinflammable, is altogether without foundation. The ashes, likethe former, were white, and seemed to be in considerable quan-tity, in proportion to the bulk burnt; bnt the precaution of burn-ing it in a tight vessel, not having been taken, the exact quantitycould not be ascertained. The whole quantity procured, beingvery small, and the season far advanced, no experiment couldbe made on what effect it would have had in promoting the vege-tation of land plants.
But-though pure undulterated peat moss is, as has been stated,the same in ail cases and situations, varying only according toits age, the pressure it has undergone, and the proportion ofthe different plants of which it is composed, it is not alwaysfound thus free of foreign mixtures ; and varies also, accordingto the quantity and quality of the substances with which it ismixed. The springs which flow into it, frequently contain somemineral substance in solution, part of which they deposit in themoss. Thus, if lime or selenite is dissolved in the water, themoss will have some mixture of calcareous earth. Some peatfuel, emits a smell of sulphur in burning, which indicates thatthe water passing through it had left that substance. And iron,being very generally diffused near the earth’s surface, manysprings are loaded with it; and hence the ashes of peat, tingedwith the oxide of that metal, are often of a red colour. Butthe largest njixture, and the one which has the most importanteffects, is that of the earths, carried repeatedly over the surface*f mosses by land floods, from the higher grounds. When there