MOVING BOG. 
605 
allowed to those persons who have obtained a special firman ; and 
pride is so much stronger than avarice, that the idea of making over 
this property to the highest bidder, never entered the imagination of 
its present possessors.”-— 'Jfoner. 
Moving Bog. 
The following is a copy of a report relative to the moving bog 
of Kilmaleady, in the King’s county, Ireland, made by order of the 
Royal Dublin Society, by Richard Griffith, mining engineer: 
“ The bog of Kilmaleady , frOm whence the eruption broke out, situated 
about two miles to the north of tlie village of Clara, in the King’s 
county, is of considerable extent ; it may probably contain about 
five hundred acres : in many parts it is forty feet in depth, and it is 
considered to be the wettest bog in the country. It is bounded on 
all sides, except the south, by steep ridges of high land, which are 
composed at the top of limestone gravel, and beneath of cavernous 
limestone rock, containisjg subterrajiean streams: but the southern 
face of the bog is open to a moory valley, about a quarter of a mile in 
breadth, which, for nearly half a mile in length, takes a southern direc- 
tion in the lands of Lisanisky, and then turns at right angles to the west, 
and continues gradually widening for upwards of two miles. Through 
the centre of this valley flows a stream about twelve feet in breadth, 
which serves as a discharge for the waters from the bog and the 
surrounding country, and finally joins the river Brusna above the 
bridge of Ballycumber. 
** The bog of Kilmaleady, like all other deep and wet bogs, is com- 
posed, for the first eight or ten feet from the surface downwards, of 
a reddish-brow'n spongy mass, formed of the still undecoraposed fibres 
of the bog-moss, sphagmim palustie, which, by capillary attraction, 
absorbs water in great quantity. Beneath this fibt-ous mass, the hog 
gradually becomes pulpy, till, at length, towards the bottom, it 
Ossuines the appearance, and, when examined, the consistence, of a 
black mud, rather heavier than water. 
“ The surface of the bog of Kilmaleady was elevated iipw'ards of 
twenty feet above the level of the valley, from which it rose at a very 
steep angle, and its external face, owing to the uncommon dryness of 
the season, being much firmer than usual, the inhabitants of the 
vicinity w'efe enabled to sink their turf-holes, and cut turf at the 
depth of at least ten feet beneath the surface of the valley, and, iii 
fact, until they reached the blue clay which forms the substratum of 
the bog. Thus the faces of many of the turf hanks reached the 
unusual height of thirty feet perpendicular ; when, at length, the lower 
pulpy or muddy part of the bog, which possessed little cohesion, 
being unable to resist the great pressure of water from behind, gave 
way, and being once set in motion, floated the upper part of the bog, 
and continued to move with astonishing velocity along the valley to 
the southward, forcing before it not only the clumps of turf on the 
edge of the bog, but even patches of the moory meadows, to the depth 
of several feet, the grass surface of which heaved and turned over 
almost like the waves of the ocean ; so that in a very short space of 
