80 



KNOWLEDGE 



[Feb. 9, 1883. 



A "Moving lioc.'' — A correspondent of the Dxidin 

 Express writes as follows : - The incessant downpours of 

 rain have, as already stated, produced immense floods in 

 tliis neighbourhood. A bog, too, was reported to have 

 moved a considerable distance, causing serious losses to the 

 adjoining farms. Having heard many reports about thi.s 

 " moving bog," I resolved to visit the scene of devastation. 

 Kevcr huve I witnes.sed as strange a phenomenon. About 

 mid-way between Castlerea and Bellinagare — a distance of 

 six miles — there is a gently sloping vale abounding in 

 rich meadow and pasture lands. The road at this 

 point is somewhat higher than the adjacent fields. 

 Along this valley the bog has forced its way. On reaching 

 the road it was held in check for a considerable time, but 

 eventually it burst across, and rushed with amazing 

 rapidity, covering in its course upwards of 1-0 acres of 

 line " pasture " lands. One farm-hou.se stands quite sur- 

 rounded with the mud, the occupants having to Hee for 

 their lives, leaving a cart on which they were busily heaping 

 some of their furniture behind. All communication 

 between Castlerea and Bellinagare (by this route) is cut 

 off, huge masses of bog coatee, with heather, remaining 

 on the road for nearly a quarter of a mile fully ten feet 

 deep. Being anxious to view the source from which it 

 issued, I started up the field towards the bog ; I found 

 it commenced about half a mile from the road, having 

 formed a large subsidence of amazing extent, from which 

 a stream of mud was still irresistibly forcing its way. 

 The gigantic masses of bog borne along in apparently 

 sportive mimicry baffle description. I entered a cabin 

 on the outskirts of a bog, which I was surprised to find 

 clean and comfortable, despite its gloomy surroundings. 

 The old man told me that this bog has been showing signs 

 of moving for many years back. He attributes the cause 

 to defective drainage, the water having scarcely any outlet. 

 He stated that it started very suddenly, reaching the road, 

 nearly half a mile distant, in less than ten minutes. He 

 sorrowfully pointed out to me his fine little fields, on which 

 he appears to have bestowed much care, the most of them 

 now covered with fully 26 ft of bog. It has now forced 

 its way into the river Suck, which flows through this town, 

 and immense quantities are passing towards Ballinasloe. 

 Some care and supervision will be required at the various 

 bridges along the Suck to prevent their being filled up. 

 Eain still continues to fall very heavily, and more serious 

 results are apprehended. 



The Wolverhampton Chamber of Commerce has written 

 to the Board of Trade, saying that, though the standard 

 ■wire gauge proposed by the department was not in every 

 respect such as they would have liked, yet they felt it 

 would fulfil the purposes of a national standard wire gauge. 

 They were so anxious to see a workable gauge introduced, 

 that they preferred not to make any suggestions, lest they 

 should hinder, or possibly frustrate, its adoption. 



The St. Gothard Railway is diverting the bulk of the 

 Italian trade into the hands of Germany, Belgium, and 

 Holland with surprising rapidity. Early fruit and vege- 

 tables are conveyed without transhipment from all parts 

 of Italy to Ostend, Antwerp, and Rotterdam, whence they 

 are taken by fast steamers to London and other English 

 ports. The Great Eastern l^ailway Company alone is 

 stated to have carried over 6,000 tons of these goods, via 

 Antwerp and Harwich, in a few months. Malta is now 

 brought nearer, and Algerian produce, such as green peas 

 and early potatoes, is made more available. On the other 

 hand, Italy is receiving an unprecedented, not to say 



overwlielming, amount of attention from Germany. In 

 two months after the opening of the St Gothard route the 

 Germans despatched 40,000 tons of coal, 107 tons of un- 

 manufactured iron and liardware, 14,000 tons of machinery, 

 tiyii tons of copj)er, 17,409 tuns of spirits 1,4)6 tons of 

 paper, and 76 railway waggons, the export, the Times 

 says, of all these articles liaving previously been either nil 

 or quite nominal. 



The Town Council of Southampton have accepted a 

 tender for continuing the boring in the chalk which was 

 abandoned in 1851, after it had reached a depth of 439 

 yards bored in the chalk or chalk marl, but its continuation 

 will now probably carry it into the lower green-sand in a 

 short time. The boring commences at the bottom of a well 

 5G3 ft in depth. Chalk mud now fills about 36 yards of 

 the bottom of the boring. The temperature, at a depth of 

 1,210 ft, has been recently found to be nearly 72'^, that of 

 the outer air being at the time 49"; the increase in tem- 

 perature being thus 1° deg. Fall, for every 52'6ft in depth. 



Pneumatic Tubes at Philadelphia. — The United 

 States Post Ofiice Department is considering the feasibility 

 of laying down very large pneumatic tubes for the Phila- 

 delphia Post Office, connecting it with the mail depots in 

 the city. The object is to avoid the present slow trans- 

 ference of mails from trains by coaches to the central 

 office. The idea is with the English Post-office an old and 

 unpractical one. 



Gold in Victoria. — A comparative statement of the 

 yield of gold in Victoria for the two first quarters of this 

 year has been compiled by the Mining Department from 

 the mining surveyor's reports. It shows that in the first 

 quarter the yield was 189,826 oz. 8 dwt. 4 gr., and for the 

 second quarter 213,394 oz. 17 dwt. 5 gr., showing an in- 

 crease of 23,568 oz. 9 dwt. 1 gr. Recent reports of sur- 

 veyors at Sandhurst and Ballarat are favourable, the former 

 stating that in his district there was an improvement of 

 quite 40 per cent, in the yields of the claims for the second 

 quarter of 1 882. 



The Engineer says a meeting of street railway officials 

 was held in Boston, U.S., Dec. 12, for the purpose of 

 forming a National Street Railway Association. The 

 temporary chairman, Mr. Moody Merrill, in outlining the 

 scope of the proposed organisation, said that there are 

 now organised and doing business in that country and 

 Canada 415 street railway companies. These companies 

 employ about 35,000 men, and run 18,000 cars. More 

 than 100,000 horses are in daily use, to feed which it 

 requires annually 150,000 tons of hay and 11,000,000 

 bushels of grain. These companies own and operate over 

 3,000 miles of track. The whole number of passengers 

 carried annually is over 1,212,400,000. The amount of 

 capital invested in these railways exceeds 150,000,000 dols. 

 Messrs. C. B. Clegg, of Ohio, and C. C. Woodruti; of New- 

 York, were chosen secretaries. 



Spihit of turpentine is now made, says a contemporary, 

 from sawdust and refuse of the sawmill. It is extracted 

 by a sweating process, and yields 14 gallons of spirits, 

 three to four gallons of resin, and a quantity of tar per 

 cord. 



Herren Ganz vt Co. are about to illuminate the 

 National Theatre, Buda-Pesth, by means of a thousand 

 Swan lamps, 200 of which they are also fitting up in a 

 steam corn-mill. 



