The material is exceptionally tough, and is very difficult to disintegrate. In order to remove the structureless humus which composed the greater part of the peat, we found it necessary to break it into thin flakes and boil it in a strong soda solution for three or four days. Afterwards the material was passed through a sieve, the fine flocculent parts being washed away by a stream of water, the undecomposed plant remains being left behind in a state for examination. These remains were mixed with a large amount of shreds of cuticle, etc., but recognisable leaves were not found in the washed material. The general result of our examination is to suggest that the deposit comes from the middle of some vast fen, so far from rising land that all terrigenous material has been strained out of the peaty water. The vegetation, as far as we have yet seen, consists exclusively of swamp species, with no admixture of hard-seeded edible fruits, usually so widely distributed by birds, and no wind-borne composites. The sea was probably some distance away, as there is little sign of brackish-water plants, or even of plants which usually occur within reach of an occasional tide; one piece however yielded seeds of _Ruppia_. The climate to which the plants point may be described as northern. The white-birch, sallow and hazel were the only trees; the alder is absent. All the plants have a high northern range, and one, the dwarf Arctic-birch, is never found at sea-level in latitudes as far south as the Dogger Bank (except very rarely in the Baltic provinces of Germany). The plants already found are:— Ranunculus Lingua Castalia alba Cochlearia sp. Lychnis Flos-cuculi Arenaria trinervia Spiraea Ulmaria Rubus fruticosus Epilobium sp. Galium sp. Valeriana officinalis Menyanthes trifoliata Lycopus europaeus Atriplex patula Betula alba ” nana Corylus Avellana Salix repens ” aurita Sparganium simplex Alisma Plantago Potamogeton natans Ruppia rostellata Scirpus sp. Carex sp. Phragmites communis Among the nine species of beetle determined by Mr G. C. Champion it is noticeable that two belong to sandy places. This suggests that the fen may have had its seaward edge protected by a belt of sand-dunes, just as the coast of Holland is at the present day.