r color and texture. At considerable
depths, however, where the peat is very old, these differences nearly or
entirely disappear.

The geological character of a country is not without influence on the
kind of peat. It is only in regions where the rocks are granitic or
silicious, where, at least, the surface waters are free or nearly free
from lime, that _mosses_ make the bulk of the peat.

In limestone districts, peat is chiefly formed from _grasses_ and
_sedges_.

This is due to the fact that mosses (sphagnums) need little lime for
their growth, while the grasses require much; aquatic grasses cannot,
therefore, thrive in pure waters, and in waters containing the requisite
proportion of lime, grasses and sedges choke out the moss.

The accidental admixtures of soil often greatly affect the appearance
and value of a peat, but on the whole it would appear that its quality
is most influenced by the degree of decomposition it has been subjected
to.

In meadows and marshes, overflowed by the ocean tides, we have
_salt-peat_, formed from Sea-weeds (_Algae_,) Salt-wort (_Salicornia_,)
and a great variety of marine or strand-plants. In its upper portions,
salt-peat is coarsely fibrous from the grass roots, and dark-brown in
color. At sufficient depth it is black and destitute of fibres.

The fact that peat is fibrous in texture shows that it is of
comparatively recent formation, or that the decomposition has been
arrested before reaching its later stages. Fibrous peat is found near
the surface, and as we dig down into a very deep bed we find almost
invariably that the fibrous structure becomes less and less evident
until at a certain depth it entirely disappears.

It is not depth simply, but age or advancement in decomposition, which
determines these differences of texture.

The "ripest," most perfectly formed peat, that in which the peaty
decomposition has reached its last stage,--which, in Germany, is termed
_pitchy-peat_ or _fat peat_, (_Pechtorf_, _Specktorf_)--is dark-brown or
black in color, and comparatively heavy and dense. When moist, it is
firm, sticky and coherent almost like clay, may be cut and moulded to
any shape. Dried, it becomes hard, and on a cut or burnished surface
takes a luster like wax or pitch.

In Holland, West Friesland, Holstein, Denmark and Pomerania, a so-called
_mud-peat_ (_Schlammtorf_, also _Baggertorf_ and _Streichtorf_,) is
"fished up" from the bottoms of ponds, as a black mud or pa