January 14, 1897] 
NATURE 
235 
having been reported on by Sir R. Griffith in 1821 
(“Report Relative to the Moving Bog of Kilma- 
leady in the King’s County,” Journ. Roy. Dublin Soc., 
vol. i.). In the latter case, 150 acres became covered 
with the products to a depth of eight to ten feet, and the 
flow extended from the edge of the bog one and a half 
miles down a valley. Probably in all cases such flows 
are merely a rapid extension of those ‘‘creeping” pro- 
cesses which produce rifts and areas of subsidence in 
bogs formed upon a slope. 
The scene of the present bog-slide lies among Carbon- 
iferous rocks, and is included in Sheet 174 of the 1-inch 
Ordnance Map of Ireland (Fig. 1). A perfectly straight 
voad runs N.N.W. from Shinnagh House, which is near the 
railway ; at the cottages of Lisheen a branch runs west, 
meeting four other roads in the grass-grown quarries of 
Carraundulkeen. (I use the spelling of the Ordnance Sur- 
——S— KiLomerace 
Samet ~ 2 
GAIDGE '} - iS ‘ 2 mies 
¥ 
Fic. r,—Sketch-map showing the site of the Bog-slide, from the maps of the 
Ordnance Survey. Heights in feet. The course of the flow is indicated 
by the dotted area. 
vey throughout.) The bog in which the slip occurred lies 
between the road from Lisheen and that running almost 
north from the quarries, which is locally known as the 
Kingwilliamstown road. It is a brown almost level 
upland, a mile across, mainly in the townland of Knock- 
nageeha, and is bounded on the north and south by en- 
closed and cultivated hills, which rise from 780 feet to 
847 feet above the sea. The highest point recorded inthe 
bog is 776 feet, and there is a fall of 1 in 38 between this 
and the bridge between the quarries. The streams on 
this side flow to the west coast, while the east side of 
the bog drains direct into the Blackwater. 
Several deep peat-cuts existed in the bog, perpendicular 
to the direction of its subsequent flow, and these have 
the appearance of rifts or “faults” at a distance. But 
the lost portion seems to have oozed out from below a 
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large area of the superficial peat, lowering the surface 
into a series of hummocky and very irregular steps. At 
the same time, great masses of the surface, with tufts of 
grass adhering to them, were floated down and hurried 
into the valley, looking, as one man told me, ‘“‘as large as 
houses.” 
The flow appears to have been rapid and silent, though 
the noise of the storm which raged through Sunday night 
kept many of the cottagers awake. Even within a few 
hundred yards of Donnelly’s house, no suspicion of the 
fate of the unhappy family was raised, until dawn revealed 
the black flood tossing, and still hurryig down the valley. 
A young peasant, living close to the edge of the flow, told 
me that he was roused only by the bellowing of his cow ; 
in another case, a man went at about 4 a.m. to a point 
three miles down the valley to remove two calves, 
which he intended to drive into Killarney. He was then 
almost overtaken by the rise of the peat-flood at Annagh 
Bridge. I conclude, therefore, that no unusual sound or 
movement of the earth occurred, such as might have 
warned him of the coming danger. 
Fic. 2.—Broken roadway, with meadows submerged by the peat-flow, at 
Annagh Bridge. Foreground of heaped-up peat-mud and bog-timber. 
Lyne’s cottage in the distance. 
The full flood first attacked the Kingwilliamstown road, 
on the east side of which the bog abutted. It filled up 
the hollow, climbed the embankment, and fell over the 
western side like a very fluid lava-flow. The guiding- 
line here was the course of the streamlet that drained 
the bog into the Ownacree River. Probably the road 
itself has been carried away beneath the thick mass 
now covering its site, and communication with the north 
is likely to remain cut off for some weeks. On January 3, 
movement had ceased at this point, but the embankment 
on which the road runs alone prevented a further down- 
rush. ‘ 
Donnelly’s cottage stood on the west side of this road, 
and was totally swept away. Its thatched roof was seen 
floating for a time, but the house is said to have been 
built of loose stones, and rapidly succumbed. The bodies 
recovered were found at various points in the first four 
miles of the flow. 
The Royal Dublin Society have appointed a Com- 
mission, consisting of Prof. Sollas, F.R.S., and Messrs. 
De Lap, A. F. Dixon, and k. Lloyd Praeger, who may 
be trusted to give us an accurate survey of the flow ; the 
