PRELIMINARY REPORT ON PEAT.

not successful, but in the course of the work he accidentally discovered what a peculiar ash the the peat left when burned. He brought a sample of this to Mr. Bishop, who began to investigate its possibilities, with the result that about i9oi a plant for the manufacture of "infusorial earth" was erected on the northern edge of this peat prairie, a few hundred feet from the Sanford & Lake Eustis division of what is now the Atlantic Coast Line R. R. The peat was dug out by hand to a depth of about a foot, conveyed by machinery up an incline to the top of the building, and there dumped into a machine which pressed out most of the water. From this it was taken to a shed and spread out to dry, and afterwards burned in a suitable furnace. The product was at first sent to England to use in the manufacture of scouring soap.
When I visited the place in the winter of i9o8-9 the plant had been idle for a few years, but in the spring of 19o9 the property was purchased from Mr. Bishop and his associates by the American Diatomite Co., of New York, who put in several thousand dollars worth of new buildings and machinery, it is -said.
At only a short distance from the margin of this bog I could not reach bottom with 18 feet of sounding-rod, and Mr. Bishop informs me that the maximum depth is about 35 feet.
Some of the "infusorial earth" from this locality was submitted by Dr. Davis to Dr. Albert Mann, of the Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, who indentified in it the following species of diatoms:
Navicula .firuina tumescens Grunow
Navicula serious Breb.
Navicula major Kuetzing
Eunotia major (W. Smith) Rab.
Mfelosira sp. (very small and rare)
He notes that the deposit is remarkable for the purity of the diatoms, the paucity of forms, and the absence of round forms. All are living fresh-water species.
Analyses of the peat can be found in the table of analyses, under locality No. 4. There are some references to this place in the first annual report of this Survey, page 39, and the second anV, ual report, pages i58 and 244.

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