504 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 
would naturally spring up, and would thence spread outwards 
and upwards; but since their growth would commence near the 
spring, it is there that we should expect to find the bog 
attaining its greatest height above the level of the surrounding 
country. 
That the water contained within many bogs is supplied by 
springs was fully recognised by careful observers as early as the 
beginning of the present century, as will appear from the follow- 
ing quotations :—‘“ The summits . . . of bogs are generally the 
deepest and invariably the wettest parts . . . large lakes covering 
_ the surface. . . . The summits are composed of fluid peat. The 
fluid peat at the summit is of so soft a nature that boring irons 
descend 16 to 18 feet by their weight alone. Over the fluid peat 
is from 1 to 2 inches of water. In summer the bog dries, but the 
summit continues wet for 200 or 300 acres, and supplies streams. 
Springs are often met with in the deepest part of the bog, rushing 
up sometimes with much violence, and often strongly impregnated 
with sulphate of iron, carbonic acid, and earth. The water of 
almost all the springs in the bogs deposits oxide of iron on the 
beds of the streams in passing from the source through the bog. 
There is a very strong chalybeate spring issuing from the fissures 
of a limestone rock, whose beds are vertical, in the bottom of a 
cut-out bog near Newpark. . . . I have observed of a deep drain, 
made several years ago, to take away the water from a lake in the 
bog of Moanahinch, that it still continues to discharge a consider- 
able quantity of water, although the lake has been drained... . 
This water issues from springs, which perhaps first formed the 
lake. There is also a constant discharge of water throughout the 
year from other lakes in the same bog near the summit, and 
consequently without any supply but from springs.”’ And the 
same writer concludes as follows:—‘‘ That the wetness of those 
bogs originates from springs within themselves, and that the 
principal springs must be at the summits.” Mr. Edgeworth 
also remarks, with reference to Ringowny bog, in the Inny valley, 
that it is “kept marshy by springs of its own, of which there 
1 Aher., Appendix No. 2, Third Report, Commission on Bogs, p. 65. 
2 Tbid., p. 66. 
