Îganong] l'EAT BOGS OF NEW BRUiNSWICK 149 



rain must be very great. It is ])rul)able that the possibility of liolding 

 this water and g-rowing- upward is hirgely dependent upon the w:iy in 

 which the whole mass is held together by the innumerable long, toughs 

 interlacing roots and under-raoss stems of the woody perennials, whirh 

 form a great system of binding cords, without which the Sphagnum 

 alone would be so weak and yielding that it could hold up but little 

 weight of water. The bursting of bogs in Ireland, so destructive to life 

 a,nd property, is, 1 suppose, the result of accumulation of more water 

 than the structure is strong enough to hold u]), and it gives way 

 suddenly/ 



For the formation of the raised bogs, all authorities agree that an 

 abundant supply of water free from salts of lime is necessary, and it is 

 generally agreed that these conditions are best attained where impervious 

 basins store water from a copious rainfall. These are the conditions 

 which prevail in the region we ai-e considering, and explain fully the 

 source of the water in these bogs. The country here is covered by 

 glacial deposits, and the soundings show the bottom of the bogs to be a 

 compact clay, Avhich is true, also, of those of Europe. The rainfall is 

 copious. The meteorological tables from the Canadian Statistical Yeai-- 

 Book show that the average precipitation for the province of New Bruns- 

 wick, for a period of twenty years, 187-t to 1894, wasiJl'TO inches of rain 

 and lOl'T of snow ; but the detailed tables for the different stations in the 

 province show that the precipitation for St. John, Point Lepreau and 

 Grand Manan is greater than for other parts of the province ; hence, for the 

 vicinity of the peat bogs, it is considerably greater than the average above 

 given. But abundance of water supply depends not only on precipita- 

 tion, but also upon rate of evaporation, which, in turn, depends upon 

 temj^erature, sunshine and amount of moisture in the air. The mean 

 summer temperature of Point Lepreau is the lowest of any place in the 

 province, while Grand Manan and St. John follow closely. Moreover, 

 this whole coast receives in summer a gi-eat deal of fog, which often lasts 

 for days together, both hiding the sun and preventing evaporation. In 

 the aggregate, therefore, the conditions are unusually favourable for the 

 receiving and retention of copious rain water. 



The distribution of the drier and wetter ))arls of the bogs bears no 

 constant relation to their outline. In the Lepreau bog the wettest part is 

 northwest of B (Fig. 2), where it is within two or three feet of the height 



equally important, falls more rapidly on the higher parts and less on the lower 

 parts, showing some settling of the \vater towards the margins of the bog. That 

 this fall in level >vas not due to evaporation from open pits was proven bj' covering 

 other pits with moss, and in them the rate of fall was the same. See Appendix. 



1 A monograph on l)Og-bursting has recently been published by Friih. L'eber 

 Moorausbriiche, Vierteljahrsschrift der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Zurich, 

 XLIl., 1897, 202-2:^7. The author can find no record of a bursting of a bog in 

 America. 



