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I saw something, but it was no higher above the ground than myself. Terror seized me. I turned and rode back. "My stupid animal has bogged himself!" said lady Cairnedge quietly. Deep in the dark watery peat, as thick as porridge, her horse gave a fruitless plunge or two, and sank lower. "For God's sake," I cried, "get off! Your weight is sinking the poor animal! You will smother him!"

It may be asked why, considering the overcrowding and insanitary conditions of living in the miserable cabins, there is not more disease, and my reply is that the peat which is burnt is so healthy as to act as a disinfectant. Indigestion, like lunacy, is, however, largely on the increase.

It held also all the oxygen since locked up in rocks by their oxidation, and all the carbon dioxide which has since been laid away in limestones, besides that corresponding to the carbon of carbonaceous deposits, such as peat, coal, and petroleum. On this hypothesis the original atmosphere was dense, dark, and noxious, and enormously heavier than the atmosphere at present.

In this country we have had such a wealth of fuel resources coal, wood, oil, and gas that up to the present time we have done little to develop our peat beds, although in European countries ten million tons are used annually for fuel, as well as large quantities for other purposes.

Now, as I sat on the deck and ate, once and again came to me that sharp smell of peat smoke, and at last I spoke of it, asking if the others had not smelt it. "I smell somewhat strange to me," said Bertric. "It is a pleasant smell enough. What is amiss with it?" "What, do your folk in England use no peat?" said Dalfin in surprise. "Why, we should hardly know how to make a fire without it.

With rare skill he drew from her the picture of the little Irish cottage with its thatched roof, its peat fire, and well-swept hearth; the table with the white cloth, the cat in the rocking chair, the curtain starched stiffly at the window, the bright posy on the deep window ledge; and, lastly, the little girl with clean pinafore and curly hair who kissed her mother every morning and trotted off to school.

And then it lay back, nestling down to sleep, very small, very cosy, mere handful of brown roofs among the orchards. Only the blue smoke of occasional peat fires moved here and there, betraying human occupation. The peace and beauty sank into his heart, as he wandered higher across Mont Racine's velvet shoulder. And the contrast stirred memories of his recent London life.

There was no shame, that was easily seen, on either side; each apparently was full of pride in the other; their living apart was entirely due to the old mere's preference for a life on the cliffs, alone in the midst of all her old peasant belongings. "C'est plus chez-soi, ici! Victorine feels that, too. She loves the smell of the old wood, and of the peat burning there in the fireplace.

The Macruadh set down the creel, and taking out peat after peat, piled them up against the wall, where already a good many waited their turn to be laid on the fire; for, as the old woman said, she must carry a few when she could, and get ahead with her store ere the winter came, or she would soon be devoured: there was a death that always prowled about old people, she said, watching for the fire to go out.

These are often several inches long and stand erect at the surface by the thousand, touching but not cohering, ready to crumble to fragments at the pressure of the foot but shielding the peat below from the cold. The ice on the pond may be solid enough to bear you, but when you step on this peaty edge you go down into the liquid mud beneath.