VOL. XV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 143 



the hardened turf, when broken, is stringy, though there plainly appear in it 

 parts of other vegetables ; and it is probable that the seed of this bog moss, 

 when it falls on dry and parched ground, produces heath. 



It is further to be observed, that the bottom of bogs is generally a kind of 

 white clay, or rather sandy marl ; that a little water makes it exceedingly soft; 

 and when dry, it is all dust; so that the roots of the grass do not stick fast in 

 it; but a little wet loosens them, and the water easily gets in between the surface 

 of the earth and them, and lifts up the surface, as a dropsy doth the skin. Again, 

 bogs are generally higher than the land about them, and highest in the middle; 

 the chief springs that cause them being commonly about the middle, from 

 whence they dilate themselves by degrees; and besides if a deep trench be cut 

 through a bog, you will find the original spring, and vast quantities of water 

 will be discharged, and the bog subside. 



It must be allowed that there are quaking bogs otherwise produced. When a 

 stream or spring runs through a flat, it fills with weeds in summer, and trees 

 fall across and dam it up ; then in winter the water stagnates more and more 

 every year, till the whole flat is covered; then there grows up a coarse kind of 

 grass peculiar to these bogs ; this grass grows in tufts, and their roots consoli- 

 date together, and yearly grow higher, even to the height of a man ; the grass 

 rots in winter, and falls on the tufts, and the seed with it, which springs up 

 next year, and so still makes an addition ; sometimes the tops of flags and grass 

 are interwoven on the surface of the water, and this gradually becomes thicker, 

 till it lie like a cover on the water; then herbs take root in it, and by a plexus 

 of the roots it becomes very strong, so as to bear a man. Some of these bogs 

 will rise before and behind, and sink where a man stands to a considerable depth; 

 underneath is clear water : even these in time will become red bogs ; but may 

 easily be turned into meadow by clearing a trench to let the water run off. 



The inconveniences of these bogs are very great ; a considerable part of the 

 kingdom being rendered useless by them ; they keep people at a distance from 

 each other, and consequently interrupt them in their affairs. Generally, the 

 land which should be our meadows, and the finest plains are covered with 

 bogs; this is observed over all Connaught, but more especially in Longford and 

 also in Westmeath, and in the north of Ireland. These bogs greatly obstruct 

 the passing from place to place; and on this account the roads are very crooked, 

 or they are made at vast expence through bogs. The bogs are a great de- 

 struction to cattle, the chief commodity of Ireland ; for in the spring, when 

 they are weak and hungry, the edges of the bogs have commonly grass, and 

 the cattle venturing in to get it, fall into pits of sloughs, and are either 



