Mosses and Peat 
But the natural history of the moss itself has many 
other interesting features. 
Below there are the accumulated remains of possibly 
hundreds or thousands of years of Sphagnum-growth, 
whilst the living crust of mosses on the top is still 
vigorous and active. Those moss plants may, for 
aught we know to the contrary, be the identical in- 
dividuals which perhaps began to grow there at the 
close of the glacial period, and which have gone on 
developing at the top and dying off below ever since. 
During extremely heavy and long continued rain 
the water penetrates through the living Sphagnum 
crust, and collects between it and the dead peat under- 
neath. It sometimes happens that the skin of floating 
mosses bursts at the edges. Should the moss be above 
the level of the surrounding country, a deluge of peaty 
water may burst forth and overflow the neighbouring 
lowlands. Such bogslides or slippings are extremely 
dangerous, and several destructive cases have been 
recorded, especially from Ireland. One of the worst 
was that at Rathmore in 1896, when two hundred 
acres of bog burst and covered some ten miles of 
country with black and liquid mud. It is said that 
nine people were suffocated. There was another case 
of the same sort on October 11, Ig00, at Lisdoon- 
varna, when a house was thrown down and two people 
were killed. The reader may have noticed in January 
1909 another bogslide at Kilmore in Galway. A small 
village was overwhelmed, and the peat rose to the very 
ridge-tiles. One woman was suffocated in her sleep. 
But at some period or other in the history of a 
peat moss, the uppermost living Sphagnacez begin to 
feel the effects of drought. Even in very old bogs the 
surface seems to be usually uneven; there are the 
bulging little hillocks of squashy Sphagnum, with here 
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