MARSHES, SWAMPS AND BOGS 



GREAT aquatic en- 

 vironment may be 

 miaintained with 

 much less water than there is in a lake or a river if only 

 an area of low gradient, lacking proper basin or channel, 

 be furnished with a ground cover of plants suitable for 

 retaining the water on the soil. Enough water must be 

 retained to prevent the complete decay of the accumu- 

 lating plant remains. Then we will have, according to 

 circumstances, a marsh, a swamp or a bog. 



There are no hard and fast distinctions between these 

 three; but in general we may speak of a marsh as 

 a meadow-like area overgrown with herbaceous aquatic 

 plants, such as cat-tail, rushes and sedges; of a swamp 

 as a wet area overgrown with trees ; and of a bog as such 

 an area overgrown with sphagnum or bog-moss, and 

 yielding under foot. The great Montezuma Marsh of 

 Central New York (shown in the initial above) is 



