I took a sixth form field course in South Wales in 1979. Half way up the Blorenge I stopped the group to demonstrate the age and thickness of the blanket peat at one particular spot. I plunged my walking stick into the peat, declaring that the three feet it had descended to the base layer underneath represented 11,000 years of peat growth. When I withdrew the stick the ferrule had disappeared. You never know, one day a scientist studying the area may find a very puzzling “fossil”...