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Show ·-....~ NoTE XVII. 34 f, of calcareous ear th befides the aquatic one abdo v· e There is however another ource f I d animals and vegetables as foun m MORASSES. gefcribed, and that is from _the rec:ements :f c:~careous earth, fand, and clay, all of I hich conllll of vanous nHxtures .. mars, w f table ongtn. . them perhaps principal!~ _rom vege ~ rocks of marble have been foftened by fire mto Dr. Hutton is of opmwn that th. . rr ight be done without the cfcape fl 'd fs which he t h. k der nnmenfe prenure m . 'd b a tn .sun n V I I If this ingeniOus t ea e lll rna ' . Ed'nb Tranfac[. o. . ' . fl 'd of their carbonic acid or fixed atr. .~ . f fome white marbles, as during thetr ut allowed it might account for the _runty.~ impurities, whether from the bodies of _the !tate there might be time for their par~t ther extraneous matter, either to fubltme animals which produced the fhells, or r~: f~bfide to the lowermofl: part of it. As a to the uppermoll part of the llratum or ' . be added that fome calcareous h f Dr Hutton s tt may fi d . confirmation of this t eory o . h ce loll a part of their xe atr or n.ones are found mixed wt.t I l' and have t en r d I 1 nne, h ·d on being ex pole tot le H n d on that account at ens B h carbonic gas, as the bath-none, an l' of fulphur. Falconer on at - I I d ces calcareous tver at. r, and mixed with fu p ldl lr pro u Mr' . Monnet 1c0 Un d l'ttne in powd. er in the moun-water. Vol. I. P· 156. an P· '257· · · · Kirwan's Mm. P· 22• tains of Auvergne, an d fu~peB:ed it of volcamc ongm. NOTE XVII.-MORASSES. G ' you then taught tranfudi11g dews to pafs nomes. . orafs CANTO II. I. I I 5· crbrottg h tt.m e-J1 :a l l'n 'l~oods ~ and root-zmvove m 'J·. h tedly grown an d pen. fhed moraffes are in procefs co f WHERE woods ave repea h . trees till the whole becomes lOr d b their long roots fill up t e JOter J . . . time produced, an y . Th' . fa :t is curioufly venfied by an account d fs of vegetatwn. 15 c . . Jl... t many yards eep a ma by the Earl of C romartt.e , o f which the followmg IS a wor given many years ago abfl:raB:. f C TIE being then nineteen years of age law :.t In the year x6si the EARL o ROMAR . h firm !landing wood, which was fo '11. f L kburn covered over wtt ::t II plain in the p:mlll o oc them but the bark was tota Y h h d no green leaves upon . [. 1 old that not only t e trees a . d b h old countrymen was the umver .t rr h' h h as there 111forme Y t e . thrown orr, w. hIC fi e w ds terminated and t h at m. twenty or tlurty years t 1le{ j trees manner in whJc r.woo ' Ab t fifteen years after he had occa !On to would call themfelves up by the roots. ou t tree nor the appearance of a d bferved that there was no a d travel the fame way an o . . I h h I plain where the wood ftoo was root of any of them '. but m their p ace t c w o e NoTE xvn. MORASSES. 3S covered with a flat green mofs or mora(~, and on afking the country people what was become of the wood he was informed that no one had been at the trouble to c:my it away, but that it had all been overturned by the wind, that the trees lay thick over each other, and that the mofs or bog had overgrown the whole timber, which they added was occaftoned by the moillure which came down from the high hills above it and fl:agnated upon the plain, and that nobociy could yet pafs over it, wl1ich howev.er his Lordfl1ip was fo incautious as to attempt and flipt up to the arm-pits. Before the year 1699 that whole piece of ground was become a fclid mofs wherein the peafants then dug turf or peat, which however was not yet of the be(!_ fort. Philo f. Tranf. No. 330. Abridg. Vol. V. p. 272. Moraffes in great length of time undergo variety of ch:mges, firfl: by elutri::ttion, and afterwards by fermentation, and the confequeut heat. 1. By water perpetually oozing thro11gh them the moll foluble parts are firll wa01ed away, as the effential faits, thefe together with the faits from animal recrements are carried down the rivers into the fea, where all of them feem to decompofe each other except the marine fait. Hence the af11es of peat contain little or no vegetable alcali and are not ufed in the countries, where peat conllitutes the fuel of the lower people, for the purpofe of walhing linen. The fecond thing which is always feen oozing from moraffes is iron in folution, which produces chalybeate fprings, from whence dcpofitions of ochre and variety of iron ores. The third clutriation feems to confifl: of vegetable acid, which by means unknown appears to be converted into all other acids. I. Into marine and nitrous acids as mentioned above. 2. Into vitriolic acid which is found in fome moraffes fo plentifully as to preferve the bodies of animals from putref:H'tion which have been buried in them, and this acid carried away by rain and dews, and meeting with calc:~reous earth produces gypfum or alabafl:er, with clay it produces alum, and deprived of its vital air produces fi1lphur. 3· Fluor acid which being wafhed away and meeting with calcareous earth produces fluor or cubic fpar. 4· The filiceous acid which feems to have been diffcminated in great quantity either by folution in water or by folution in air, and appears to have produced the fand in the fea uniting with calcareous earth previoufly diffolved in that dement, from which were afterwards formed fome of the grit-fione rocks by means of a flliceous or calcareous cement. By its union with the calcareous earth of the morafs other !l:rata of filiceous fand h::tve been produced; and by the mixture of ihis with clay and lime arofe the beds of marl. In other circumllances, probably where lefs moillure has prevailed, moraffes feem to have undergone a fermentation, as other vegetable matter, new hay for inllance is liable to do from the great quantity of fugar it contains. From the great heat thus produced in the lower parts of immenfe beds of morafs the phlogiLl:ic part, or oil, or afphaltum, becomes diflilled, and rifing into higher llrata becomes again condcnfed forming coalbeds of greater or lefs purity according to their greater or lefs quantity of inflammable matter; at the fame time the clay beds become purer or Jefs fo, as the phlogiftic part is more or lefs completely exhaled from them. Though coal and clay are frequently produced in this mann~r, yet I have no doubt, but that they arc likewife often produced by E2 |
