1897.] Praeger. — Bog-bursts — Receiit Disaster, Co. Kerry, i6i 



we should expect to find the bog attaining its greatest height 

 above the level of the surrounding country. 



Fig. 4. — Geological Map, founded on that of the Geological Survey, 

 showing the fault which underlies the sunken portion of the bog. Scale 

 I inch to a mile. 



In view of the probability that much of the water dis- 

 charged from the bog had its origin in springs, the occurrence 

 of an earthquake about ten days before the disaster should 

 not be overlooked. The earthquake was felt from Kew, in 

 Surrey, to as far west probably as Miltown-Malbay ; its 

 epicentre seems to have been situated near Hereford ; and 

 we might fairly expect that the disturbance which produced 

 it should have continued along the great structural features 

 trending east-to-west, which extend from Wales through the 

 south of Ireland. Any change in the distribution of material 

 along the fault, that we have several times mentioned as 

 passing beneath the scene of the late eruption, would be 

 likely to affect the subterranean drainage. The two views, 

 one that looks for the cause of the outbreak in heavy rain, and 

 the other which invokes the action of springs, and perhaps of 

 earthquakes, are not mutually exclusive ; both causes may 

 have acted together, or sometimes one, and sometimes the 

 other. Some outbursts, however, almost certainly owed their 

 origin to the influx of subterranean water, e.g., that of Randals- 

 town (September 17th, 1835), when the bog swelled up till its 



