166 SCIENCE IN SHORT CHAPTERS. 



blocked up by a picturesque chain running north and south, 

 and separating the Joyce country from Connemara proper, 

 the west being open to the Atlantic. The well-known Kil- 

 lery Bay, or Fiord, would, I doubt not, present an exact 

 resemblance to Kylemore if the sea, which now flows up to 

 its head, were driven out. There are miles of similar coun- 

 try in Ireland, waiting only for the industry of man, where, 

 as here, there exist extensive stretches of undulating eskers, 

 covered with heather growing on the light clay, with a basis 

 of gravel or sand. 



"A considerable difference exists between the reclamation 

 of the flat parts, where the bog is pretty deep, and the hill- 

 sides, where there is little or no bog. Yet it is to be remem- 

 bered that bog is nothing more than vegetable matter in a 

 state of partial decomposition, and holding water like a 

 sponge. The first thing is to remove the water by drains, 

 some of which that is, the big drain and the secondary 

 drains must go right down to the gravel below; but the 

 other drains called sheep-drains need not, and, indeed, 

 must not be cut so deep. The drains are cut wedge-shape 

 by what are called Scotch tools, which employ three men 

 two to cut and one to hook out the sods; and all that is 

 requisite to form a permanent drain is to replace the wedge- 

 shaped sod, and ram it down between the walls of the drain, 

 where it consolidates and forms a tube which will remain 

 open for an indefinite number of years. We haYe them here 

 as good as new, made twenty-five years ago; and at Cbat 

 Moss, in Lancashire, they are much older. After land has 

 been thus drained but not too much drained, or it will 

 become dry turf the surface begins to sink; what was tumid 

 settles down, an in the course of a few months the land 

 itself becomes depressed on the surface and much consoli- 

 dated. Next it is to be dug by spade-labor or ploughed. 

 We use oxen largely for this purpose, and, strange to say, 

 the best workers we find to be a cross with the Alderney, the 

 result being a light, wiry little animal, which goes gayly over 

 the ground, is easy to feed, and is very tractable. The oxen 

 are trained by the old wooden neck-yoke; but, when well 

 broken, work in collars, which seem more easy to them. 

 Horses on very soft land work well in wooden pattens. 



