Report of Committee of Investigation on Bog-flow in Kerry. 505: 
are several... . These springs are not concealed, but filled to the 
brim by water issuing from the gravel beneath them.””! 
Mr. G. H. Kinahan has also clearly recognised the connexion 
which exists between the loughauns or pools on the surface of a 
bog and subterranean springs.? The existence of springs has 
been recognised in the peat bogs of other countries, as in Norway. _ 
Thus Stangeland speaks of small tarns which occur in certain 
bogs, mostly those which lie in narrow valleys with an uneven 
ae ee 
bottom. These he considers must be caused by subterranean 
springs. It is worth notice in passing, however, that this author 
assigns another origin to the swamps which occur on many large 
bogs; these he regards as a necessary stage in the development of 
a bog, which occurs when it is large enough to receive and retain 
a great quantity of water. This accumulates in a superficial pool, 
and when the wind agitates the water, the peat moss, which is very 
sensitive to wave-motion, cannot thrive at the bottom of the pool. 
In dry seasons the pool becomes a black muddy surface, and in 
wet it forms a clear layer of water.® 
In view of the probability that much of the water discharged 
from the bog had its origin in springs, the occurrence of an earth- 
quake about ten days before the disaster should not be overlooked. 
The earthquake was felt from Kew, in Surrey, to as far west 
probably as Miltown-Malbay, its epicentre seems to have been 
situated near Hereford; and we might fairly expect that the 
disturbance which produced it should have continued along the 
ereat structural features trending east-to-west, which extend from 
Wales through the south of Ireland. Any change in the distri- 
bution of material along the fault, that we have several times 
mentioned as passing beneath the scene of the late eruption, 
would be likely to affect the subterranean drainage. 
The two views, one that looks for the cause of the outbreak in 
heavy rain, and the other which invokes the action of springs, and 
perhaps of earthquakes, are not mutually exclusive; both causes 
may have acted together, or sometimes one, and sometimes the 
1 Second Report, Commission on Bogs, Appendix 8, p. 192. 
2 Op. cit., pp. 108-109, 
° Torvmyrer of G. E. Strangeland, Norges Geologiske Undersiigelse, Kristiania, 
1892, p. 63. 
