MOSSES. 25 



exhumed ; the remains were buried a foot deep in gravel, 

 and covered with eleven feet of moss ; they were completely 

 clothed, and the garments seemed to have been made of 

 hair. Thus men, in remote ages, clothed themselves, before 

 the introduction of wool-bearing animals brought the loom 

 and distaff ; and hence, without doubt, those remains belong 

 to a period antecedent to any written records concerning 

 Ireland. 



The great moss of Solway includes a flat area of about 

 seven miles in circumference, forming part of the western 

 border-land between England and Scotland. It looks well 

 to the eye, and green are its grass and rushes, but the 

 slightest pressure discovers that the bottom is unsound and 

 semi-fluid. Guides, however, venture to conduct the tra- 

 veller across its perilous surface during the hottest summer 

 months ; but woe betide him if he is allured by some beau- 

 tiful bog-plant, or if, forgetful of the perils by which he is 

 surrounded, he deserts the rushy hillocks that stretch across 

 the waste. There the soil is firmest, but on either side the 



