Mosses and Peat 



But the natural history of the moss itself has many 

 other interesting features. 



Below there are the accumulated remains of possibly 

 hundreds or thousands of years of Sphagnum-growth, 

 whilst the living crust of mosses on the top is still 

 vigorous and active. Those moss plants may, for 

 aught we know to the contrary, be the identical in- 

 dividuals which perhaps began to grow there at the 

 close of the glacial period, and which have gone on 

 developing at the top and dying off below ever since. 



During extremely heavy and long continued rain 

 the water penetrates through the living Sphagnum 

 crust, and collects between it and the dead peat under- 

 neath. It sometimes happens that the skin of floating 

 mosses bursts at the edges. Should the moss be above 

 the level of the surrounding country, a deluge of peaty 

 water may burst forth and overflow the neighbouring 

 lowlands. Such bogslides or slippings are extremely 

 dangerous, and several destructive cases have been 

 recorded, especially from Ireland. One of the worst 

 was that at Rathmore in 1896, when two hundred 

 acres of bog burst and covered some ten miles of 

 country with black and liquid mud. It is said that 

 nine people were suffocated. There was another case 

 of the same sort on October 11, 1900, at Lisdoon- 

 varna, when a house was thrown down and two people 

 were killed. The reader may have noticed in January 

 1909 another bogslide at Kilmore in Galway. A small 

 village was overwhelmed, and the peat rose to the very 

 ridge-tiles. One woman was suffocated in her sleep. 



But at some period or other in the history of a 

 peat moss, the uppermost living Sphagnaceae begin to 

 feel the effects of drought. Even in very old bogs the 

 surface seems to be usually uneven ; there are the 

 bulging little hillocks of squashy Sphagnum, with here 



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