Peat

Peat, vegetable matter, more or less altered, accumulated to a depth sometimes reaching 50 feet in regions in temperate climates where there is insufficient drainage. It may be compact, but is generally fibrous and brown or black, and contains about 60 per cent. of carbon. The bogs in which it is formed are known as peat-mosses. They occupy one-seventh of the surface of Ireland and large areas in other countries, often covering the sites of lakes which they have choked, and entombing the stems of oak, yew, pine, and other woods, and the bodies of prehistoric mammals, preserved by its antiseptic power. It is mainly made up of the bog-moss (q.v.) Sphagnum in most districts; but in the English fens, of rushes and sedges. It forms at a rate of from half an inch to two and half inches per annum, and is largely dug under the name of turf for fuel in Ireland and elsewhere. When swollen by heavy rain, peat-mosses sometimes burst the layer of matted vegetation that covers them, especially if on an elevated ledge, and inundate the neighbourhood with black mud.