1874.] Peat Bogs. 301 
bogs, as long as the drains are effective, will not; and it 
would appear, from the Irish annals, that both before and 
since the English occupation attempts were made to drain 
and reclaim the lowland bogs, while they were again allowed 
to run wild in subsequent troublous times. ‘These artifi- 
cial stoppages of the growth of the peat have complicated 
matters, as respects some bogs, so that it is now impossible 
even to guess how long they may have been growing. At 
the present day the growth of the lowland bogs in Ireland 
is generally small, on account of their being more or less 
‘drained, and from turf being cut round their margins. In 
places, however, where the drainage has been for a long 
time neglected, a perceptible change in their height will take 
place: this, however, may in part be due to the bog soaking 
and swelling with water. A road through a bog will rise if 
the side drains are allowed to become choked. The margins 
of others, after the turf-cutting has been abandoned, gra- 
dually begin to resume their natural form, and if left long 
enough the peat will begin to creep out upon the adjoining 
upland, the growth being sometimes very rapid: certain 
bog-holes that were abandoned in 1848 are now nearly filled 
with new peat, but of a very soft spongy nature. 
In the mountainous districts Nature has been less inter- 
fered with, and thus many facts in relation to the growth of 
bogs can be advantageously studied. Bogs naturally grow 
more readily on flats than elsewhere, and among the hills 
we find the deepest peat on the flat hill-tops and in the flat 
valleys: it, however, does not confine itself to such places, 
but creeps up and down the adjoining slopes. The latter 
process might be expected to be the easiest: this, however, 
does not appear to be the case, especially if the slope is 
steep. Bogs on an exposed hill are denuded at the edge 
during storms, especially if these are accompanied by rain. 
Such bogs are thus prevented from creeping downward, 
while the annual growth and decay of the plants increase 
their thickness, thus forming low long cliffs in all exposed 
places ; it is only in sufficiently sheltered situations that the 
peat covering extends continuously downwards. But bogs 
creep rapidly upward, even in places where the slopes are 
composed of porous materials ; as the wind, rain, and runlets 
will add boggy stuff to its edge, forming rapidly a-soil in 
Which heather, moss, and other peat-producing plants ra- 
pidly grow. In some of the valleys in the Connemara hills 
there are coarse shingle slopes, with a covering of peat often 
as much as 8 feet deep, while the bog on the adjoining flats 
is not much deeper. This peat originated with peaty matter 
VOR. 1V. (N.S.) 2Q 
