in Ireland.

WORKS OF ART IN DANISH PEAT.

When treating in the "Principles of Geology" of the changes of the
earth which have taken place in comparatively modern times, I have
spoken of the embedding of organic bodies and human remains in
peat, and explained under what conditions the growth of that
vegetable substance is going on in northern and humid climates. Of
late years, since I first alluded to the subject, more extensive
investigations have been made into the history of the Danish
peat-mosses. Of the results of these inquiries I shall give a brief
abstract in the present chapter, that we may afterwards compare
them with deposits of older date, which throw light on the
antiquity of the human race.

The deposits of peat in Denmark,* varying in depth from 10 to 30
feet, have been formed in hollows or depressions in the northern
drift or boulder formation hereafter to be described. (* An
excellent account of these researches of Danish naturalists and
antiquaries has been drawn up by an able Swiss geologist, M.A.
Morlot, and will be found in the "Bulletin de la Societe Vaudoise
des Sci. Nat." tome 6 Lausanne 1860.) The lowest stratum, 2 to 3
feet thick, consists of swamp-peat composed chiefly of moss or
sphagnum, above which lies another growth of peat, not made up
exclusively of aquatic or swamp plants. Around the borders of the
bogs, and at various depths in them, lie trunks of trees,
especially of the Scotch fir (Pinus sylvestris), often 3 feet in
diameter, which must have grown on the margin of the peat-mosses,
and have frequently fallen into them. This tree is not now, nor has