Note 17 — ON PEAT AS FUEL.
Reading edition
Pliny, Hist. Nat. (Lib. XVI, 1) expresses his pity for the "miserable people" living in East Friesland and vicinity in his day, who "dug out with the hands a moor earth, which, dried more by wind than sun, they used for preparing their food and warming their bodies:" captum manibus lutum ventis magis quam sole siccantis, terra cibos et rigentia septembrione viscera sua urunt.
As regards the "misera gens," it should be said that rich grain fields and numerous flourishing villages have occupied for several centuries large portions of the Duevel moor near Bremen.