COTTON-GRASS 



too frequently the melancholy squawking of the curlew, irri- 

 tates the pedestrian as he stumbles over clumps of heather, 

 plunges in and out of the mossy holes, or circumvents im- 

 possible peat-haggs. 



It is indeed a remarkable fact that though these islands 

 support 44,000,000 of inhabitants, including at least 

 1,000,000 paupers and unemployed, one-seventh of Ireland 

 and many square miles in Scotland are still useless peat-bogs ! 



The Bog of Allen alone covers 238,500 acres, emd the peat 

 is twenty-five feet deep. 



In some few places the peat is still used for fuel, and there 

 is a theory to the effect that peat reek is necessary for the 

 best kinds of Scotch whisky, but neither grouse nor black- 

 faced sheep, which live on the young shoots of the heather, 

 employ in at all a satisfactory way these great stretches of 

 land. 



Many attempts have been made to spin the silky threads 

 of the Cotton-grass which grows abundantly on the Scotch 

 lowlands. It is neither a grass, nor does it supply cotton, 

 but is called Eriophorum. It is perhaps the one really 

 beautiful plant to be found on them, for its waving heads 

 of fine silky- white hairs are exceedingly pretty. 



The heather itself gives a splendid red and purple shade, 

 which in summer and autumn is always changing colour, but 

 it is monotonous. Neither the little Bog Asphodel with its 

 yellowish flowers, nor red Drosera, or butter-coloured But- 

 terwort, are particularly beautiful. 



After seeing such a country one understands something 

 of the Cameronian Covenanters who held their conventicles 

 and took refuge therein. 



The manner in which these mosses and moors have de- 

 veloped is most interesting, and yet difficult to explain. 



355 



