To the north of Florida, in the Carolinas and Virginia, the belt of cypress swamps continues; but in consequence of the change of climate and vegetation, the quaking-meadows are gradually converted into peat-mosses. The surface of the marsh is incessantly renewed by a carpet of green vegetation, while below, the dead plants, deprived of air, carbonize slowly in the moisture which surrounds them: these are the beds of peat which form upon the ground just as the layers of coal were formed in previous geological epochs. On the southern side, the first great peat-bog of a well-defined character is the “Dismal Swamp,” which extends along the frontiers of North Carolina and Virginia. This spongy mass of vegetation rises ten feet above the surrounding land. In the centre, and, so to speak, upon the summit of the marsh, lies Lake Drummond, the clear water of which is colored reddish-brown by the tannin of the plants. A canal, which crosses the Dismal Swamp to connect it with the adjacent streams, is obliged to make its way along the marsh by means of locks. To the north of Virginia peat-bogs proper become more and more numerous; and in Canada, Labrador, etc., they cover vast expanses of country. All the interior of the island of Newfoundland, inside the inclosure formed by the forests on the shore, is nothing but a labyrinth--a great part of which is still unknown--of lakes and peat-bogs; even on the sides of the hills there are marshes on so steep an incline that the water from them would disappear and run off in a stream if it was not stopped by the thick carpet of plants which it saturates. Many a large peat-bog which may be crossed dry-shod contains more water than many lakes filling a hollow of the valley with deep water.