1897] Praeger. — A Bog- burst Seven Years After. 203 



fields on either hand. Mr. Pentland states in his report that 

 the land was covered with peat to a depth of only 12 inches ; 

 but the cottagers assured me that in places the deposit was six 

 feet in thickness. Be that as it may, the important point is 

 that not a trace of the deposit now remains. It lay on the 

 land for about two years, and was then cut, and made excellent 

 and valuable fuel. From this precedent it would appear that 

 the loss of land in Kerry will be only temporary, and will be 

 compensated for by a considerable saving in the cartage of 

 fuel, when the peat-deposit has had time to consolidate and 

 dr}'. 



Three miles below the scene of the outburst lies the little 

 lake of Ballinlough, a sheet of water occupying sixty acres ; 

 the streamlet which drains the bog enters it from the west, 

 and flows out at the opposite side. Sir Henry Burke states 

 that he formerly found, when fishing, depths of over fifty feet 

 near the centre of the lake. The lake checked the flood, and 

 has been left with its western half entirely filled up by the 

 peaty deposit. Where there was formerly deep water, a smooth 

 black deposit now extends. Most of this surface is quite bare 

 of vegetation, but around the margin a coarse weedy flora has 

 sprung up, and rendered it possible to walk over portion of the 

 deposit. The more conspicuous plants noticed on the peat- 

 deposit here were as follows \-~Coniaricni palitstre, Spiraa 

 Ul77iaria, Galmvi palicstre, Lythruni Salicaria, Senecio 

 aq^ictticus, Pedicularis palustris, Rtiviex Acetosa, Salix atirita 

 S. cincrca, several Rushes (too young to name), Eriophorum 

 angtcstifolmnt,E. vaginatufn, Car ex /lava, C. echinata, C. vulgaris, 

 C. 7vstraia, Glyceria flidtans, Equiset2C7ri palustre. A few of 

 these w^ere probably brought down from the bog by the flood, 

 such as the Cotton-grasses ; but it will be noted that most of 

 them are marsh plants which have spread to the bog-deposit 

 from the adjoining swampy shores of the lake. 



The only permanent damage done by this bog-burst is to the 

 lake itself Where formerly good pike-fishing was obtainable, 

 there now stretches a useless black slimy flat, and the fish in 

 the portion of the lake that still remains are few and small. 



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