504 



EiXCLOSING OF FOSSILS IN PEAT, 



[Ch. XLIV, 



-a 



been filled like a great sponge with water during lieavy rains, 

 swelled to an miusual height above the surrounding country, 



and then burst. 



seemed for a time 



^ 



like the skin of a bladder retaining the fluid within, till it 



stream 



mud 



ling, in the rate of its progress, an ordinary lava-current. 

 No lives were lost^ but the deluge totally overwhelmed some 

 cottages, and covered 400 acres. The highest parts of the 



moss 



moss 



which it invaded, was at least 15 feet. 



/ 



— An inundation in Sligo in Jan- 



enomenon 



nary, 1831, affords another example of this p] 

 After a sudden thaw of snow, the bog between Bloomfield 

 and Geevah gave way ; and a black deluge, carrying with it 

 the contents of a hundred acres of bog, took the direction of 



small stream 



sweeping 

 whelminf 



timber, mud 



over- 



many meadows and arable land. On passing 



some 



swept out a wide and 

 sadinp- from Bloomfield 



deep ravine, and part of the road 1 



to St. James's Well was completely carried away from below 



the foundation for the breadth of 200 yards. 



An ancient log-cabin is recorded as having been found in 

 1833 at the depth of fourteen feet in the peat of Donegal in 

 Ireland. The cabin was filled with peat and was surrounded 

 by other huts, which were not examined. The trunks and 

 roots of trees preserved in their natural position surrounded 

 these huts. There can be little doubt that we have here an 



at some unknown period Avas 

 overwhelmed by the bursting of a moss. In such cases the 

 depth of vegetable matter which may overlie the dwelling 

 affords no test of antiquity, as the whole thickness may have 

 accumulated at once when the catastrophe occm^red. 



Erom the facts before mentioned, respecting the burst- 

 ing of mosses and the manner in which they frequently 

 descend in a fluid state to lower levels, the reader will readily 

 perceive that lakes and arms of the sea must occasionally 



example of a village which 



\ 



¥ 



1 



