with Remarks on the Nature, $c., of Peat. 255 



As to the Extent of Peat, according to Lyell, it is said to 

 extend over the tenth part of the whole of Ireland ; accord- 

 ing to Wright, it occupies 3,000,000 of statute acres. From 

 what I have seen, I should judge one half of Lyell's state- 

 ment to be nearer the truth. Such immense quantities of 

 bog land, however, have been, during the last thirty years, 

 reclaimed ; and drainage annually increases to such an extent, 

 that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for any one, not 

 professionally engaged on the subject, to state, at present, the 

 actual amount. A hundred and fifty years ago, Dr. Boate, 

 in his Natural History of Ireland, described the Bog of Allen 

 as being seventy English miles long, by three or four broad : 

 what its present dimensions are, I know not; but it must, of 

 course, have since diminished greatly in size. The peat morass 

 of Montoire, near the mouth of the Loire, is stated to be 

 more than fifty French leagues in circumference by Blavier, 

 as cited by Lyell. 



As to the Origin of Bogs, there appears to be no doubt that 

 they are caused by the cutting down or overthrow by violent 

 hurricanes, floods, or tempests, of extensive forests ; thus the 

 site of the old Roman forests of Hircinia, Semana, Ardennes, 

 has been ascertained by De Luc to be now occupied by peat 

 morasses ; and the sole remaining traces of the ancient forests, 

 described by Julius Caesar as existing along the line of the 

 great Roman way in Britain, are to be found, observes Lyell, 

 " in the ruined trunks of trees iri peat." The greater part of 

 Ireland, where timber, generally speaking, is now so limited 

 in its quantity, and so stunted in its growth, must have been, 

 formerly, one continued series of extensive forests, possessing 

 timber of, compared with that of our own times, gigantic 

 size and dimensions ; for fir has been found in the Irish bogs 

 90 ft. in length, and been sold for the keels and masts of 

 ships; and oak of 100ft. in length; and an individual of 

 the latter species is described in the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions as the largest ever known. Fir, oak, and birch are 

 found in vast quantities in the Irish bogs, as also yew T and 

 willow : of the former, I saw some very large trunks near the 

 pretty flourishing little town of Enniskillen, in the county of 

 Fermanagh. # 



* The following interesting description of the conversion of forests into 

 bogs is from the pen of the late Sir Walter Scott, who, as is well known 

 to his readers, was a most enthusiastic admirer of trees, whose habits or 

 natural history (if I may be allowed the expression) he profoundly studied, 

 and took the greatest delight in observing. Sir Walter Scott, some ten 

 years ago, spent several days on the Lakes of Killarney ; and, although one 

 of the keenest observers and best judges of the beauties of nature the 

 world ever possessed, said the trees he had there beheld, growing of such 



