1897.] Praeger. — Bog-hursts — Recent Disaster, Co. Kerry. 149 



This curious feature will be cleariy seen from the sections of 

 the bog given in figs. 2 and 3. A striking indication of this 

 reversal of slope was furnished by several shallow surface 

 drains which had been cut in order to dry the surface of the 

 bog for turf-cutting at its eastern extremity. These, when 

 made, had a slope of one in forty towards the Blackwater 

 valley ; they were now broken across, so that what had been 

 the upper half sloped with an equal gradient towards the 

 Ownacree. It was along the southern edge of the basin that 

 the greatest amount of marginal disturbance had taken place, 

 the proportion of crevasses to crust here being quite 2:1. 

 This appears to have been the shallowest portion of the bog ; 

 several ridges of the underlying gravel had somewhat dis- 

 turbed the general subsidence of the peat. The portion over- 

 lying the crests of the ridges had remained in situ^whilo. that 

 on their slopes had broken away on both sides, and flowed 

 down through the depression between them. Soundings with 

 a pole in these depressions showed hard bottom at from 5 to 8 

 feet. This was the only place where an 8-foot pole gave an 

 indication of bottom. Owing to the increase in the number 

 and width of the crevasses, on entering the depression from 

 its margin, it was quite impossible to make any observations 

 from more than 20 or 30 yards inwards from the edge. But 

 there appears to be no doubt that along the line of greatest 

 depression, the thick covering of bog had been entirely 

 removed ; in some places the hard bottom could be seen. 



Immediately above the Kingv/illiamstown road we pass from 

 the area of subsidence to the region of flow. The flood has 

 left behind it, in the upper portion of the valley, a deposit of 

 peat averaging 3 feet in thickness, here as everywhere con- 

 trasted by its black colour with the grass land or other surface 

 on which it rests. Its compact convex margin, like that of 

 outpoured oatmeal porridge, often 2 feet in height, serves 

 equally well to define it ; so that it was an easy task to 

 determine and map the high-water level of the flood. The 

 surface of the deposit was everywhere broken by great roots 

 and trunks of Scotch Firs, which, in their enormous numbers, 

 bore convincing testimony to the evisceration which the bog 

 had undergone. The appearance of this extensive sea of black 

 peat, with its protruding stumps of blackened tr es, overlying 

 fertile fields, was a sight melancholy in the extreme. 



A3 



