1S97.] Praegkr. — Bog-bursts — Rccait Disaster, Co. Kerry. 145 



drained by any superficial streams, nor was any large amount 

 of water discharged at any point from beneath. The "wet 

 vein" already mentioned was evidently a line of drainage. 



The peasantry state that the surface of the bog was excep- 

 tionally soft ; they admit, however, they could walk across it 

 in the middle of winter. The flora of the bog shows that it 

 was no wetter than bogs usually are. The plants which form 

 its surface are members of the normal bog-flora. The vegeta- 

 tion consists of a tangle of Calluna Erica (lying), Erica Tetralix 

 (Cross-leaved Heath), Narthecium Ossifragum (Bog Asphodel), 

 Scirpus coespitosus (Club-rush), and Molinia varia (Purple Melic 

 grass), with the usual abundant undergrowth of bog-mosses, 

 of which Sphagnum rubellu7n is the prevailing species, while 

 S. cuspidatuniy var. phimostiin, fills the numerous shallow 

 pools, which, as usual, were scattered over the surface. Tufts 

 of the moss Racomitrium laiitiginosum were frequent, and the 

 lichen Cladonia rangiferina (Reindeer moss) was abundant, 

 mixed with the hepatic Pleurozia cochleariformis. The above 

 list furnishes satisfactory evidence that the surface of the bog 

 was not unusually wet ; indeed, the plants characteristic of 

 wet bogs, such as Ayidronieda polifolia and Schollera Oxy coccus 

 (Cranberry), though searched for, were not to be found. 



The bog had been cut for turf in two places— on the north- 

 eastern slope, which faces towards the Blackwater, where the 

 cuttings were of no great extent ; and along the western edge, 

 where, as already stated, they formed an irregular line, running 

 parallel to the Kingwilliamstown road. It was from the latter 

 cuttings that much of the local fuel was obtained. 



This cutting does not appear to have been judiciously 

 planned, except at the southern end, where it extended in 

 wedge-shaped gashes into the bog ; but for the rest of the dis- 

 tance it was cut in an irregular line, tranverse to the line of 

 drainage. 



An evidently faithful description of the bog, as it existed in 

 181 1, is given by Mr. Nimmo^ in his account of the bogs of 

 Kerry and Cork. 



* Appendix to Fourth Report of the Commissioners appointed to in- 

 quire into the nature and extent of the several bogs in Ireland, and the 

 practicability of draining and cultivating them : ordered by the House 

 of Commons to be printed 28th April, 1814, p. 84. 



