476 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 
the catastrophe, and no one witnessed the actual rupture. That 
the flood of escaping fluid did not at once acquire its full force is 
proved by the testimony of Mr. Arthur John Keeffe, as given in 
the Freeman’s Journal of January 4th. He states that, driving to 
Killarney fair, his horse stopped near the bridge on the Quarry 
Lodge road, and could not be induced to proceed; he then 
jumped off the car, and found himself standing in mud knee-deep. 
After vainly endeavouring to cross the bridge, he retraced his 
steps and roused some neighbours. He returned with them in 
half-an-hour’s time, to find that he could not approach within, as 
he states, a quarter of a mile of the bridge. There is an inexacti- 
tude, however, about this statement, as the total width of the flood 
at this point does not exceed the distance mentioned, viz. one 
quarter of a mile. 
Although the outburst was clearly not instantaneous, it 
evidently proceeded with great rapidity, as is witnessed by the 
circumstances of a lamentable loss of life. The bog gave way 
along the line of a turf-cutting from 4 to 10 feet deep, parallel to 
which, and about 3800 yards below it, runs the Kingwilliamstown 
road. A small stream, coming from the bog, passes under this 
road. Close by this stream, on the lower side of the road, was 
situated the house of Cornelius Donelly, Lord Kenmare’s quarry 
steward; it was of the ordinary type, of one storey, with walls of 
rubble masonry and a thatched roof; it stood about 12 feet below 
the level of the road, and at a short distance from it, the interven- — 
ing space being occupied by a garden. The house was entirely 
swept away ; Cornelius Donelly, his wife, and family of six children ~ 
all perished; the bodies of.some of them, and those of their live- — 
stock, together with articles of furniture, were carried down the — 
valley, and were found at various points along the course of the 
flood, a portion of one of the beds being picked up, a few days 
later, in the Lake of Killarney—fourteen miles away. From the 
fact that the whole family perished, and that those bodies which — 
Pe ee Pe ee gn et te ee er ee 
were recovered were without clothing, it would appear that the s 
rapidity with which the flood rose was so great as to afford them — 
no chance of escape. 
The Flood.—After bursting from the face of the turf-cutting 
already mentioned, the first obstacle the flood encountered was — 
