204 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



may bo easily regulated by a very simple 

 method. 



The manor which I hold while writing this, 

 had two of these narrow bogs,, that suited the 

 purpose I liad in view. There were other bogs, 

 but tlicir position was wider of the most retired 

 places than those selected for my decoy, and 

 hence, in my own mind, the matter was resolved. 



The bog in question, now called ^^ the home 

 decoy," had been drained to the last dregs of 

 moisture, as if the former occuj)ant, wlio had under- 

 leased it to me, had been querulously afflicted with 

 hydrophobia. 



If this utterly superfluous drainage had been 

 done with a view to cultivate the ])og, then I 

 can understand it, because the stone wall of impos- 

 sihle cultivation would have been uncovered, and 

 the white shingly sand made manifest, so as to j^ut 

 an end to the attempt ; and the state in which I 

 found matters would have been sufficiently explained. 

 But if it never had been the intention to attempt 

 the cultivation of sucli white sand and shingle 

 mixed with very poor and scanty peat, why take 

 all the trouble of these drains, the bog itself 

 being so very low that no other drainage to the 



