IRELAND. 
Scarcely the fiiadow of a forejl remains in Ireland; and 
it was long fince obferved by Boate, that the woods had 
been greatly diminifhed fince the occupation of the coun¬ 
try by the Englifh, partly from the extenfion of tillage, 
and partly from the neceflity of laying open the haunts 
of banditti. Another great caufe was the confumption 
of wood in fuel, for domeftic purpofes and manufactures, 
the coal-mines not having been then explored. The fame 
writer informs us, that in his time confiderable woods ex- 
ifted in Wicklow, Wexford, Carlow, Kerry, Tipperary, 
and Cork. Ullter alfo contained extenfive forefts in the 
counties of Donegal, Tyrone, Fermanagh, and Antrim. 
The weftern part of Connaught was alfo in his time well 
flocked with trees; but the principal forefts were fituated 
in the counties of Mayo and Sligo. 
The place of the forefts lias been ufurped by the moors, 
or bogs, which form a remarkable feature in Ireland. The 
dry heaths are chiefly confined to the mountains. The 
bogs are divided by Boate into four kinds: i. The graffy; 
which, the water being concealed by herbage, are ex¬ 
tremely dangerous to travellers. 2. The pools of water 
and mire. 3. What he terms hajfocky bogs, or (hallow 
Jakes ftudded with tufts of ruflies, which are chiefly found 
in Leinfter, efpecially in King’s and Queen’s Counties. 
4. The peat-moors. Of the formation of a bog by the 
motion of a peat-moor after heavy rain, there is a curious 
account in the TranfaCtions of the Royal Irifti Academy; 
at the fame time the moor, by obftruCting the courfe of 
a ftream, formed a confiderable lake in the fpace of half a 
day. This circumltance, however, was but of a local na¬ 
ture ; and the formation of bogs is chiefly afcribed to the 
moifture retained in the hollows of forefts, the fall .of the 
leaves forming a vegetable earth fuperfaturated with moif¬ 
ture, fo that the trees themfelves in time fall a prey. Or¬ 
naments of gold and other relics have occafionally been 
found at confiderable depths in thefe bogs, and other in- 
dications evince them to be of comparatively recent for- 
* mation. Mr. Young, who, in his Tour in Ireland, had 
an opportunity of examining feveral of thefe bogs, divides 
them into two forts only, the black and the red. The 
former are folid almoft to the furface, and generally im¬ 
provable, though at great expence. The red are fo called 
from a reddifh fubftance at the depth of five or fix feet, 
which holds water like a fponge, yields no alhes in burn¬ 
ing, and is fuppofed to be utterly irreclaimable. Trees 
are found in 'both, and are fuppofed to originate from 
fallen forefts. Both differ from the Englifh moraffes; the 
bogs of Ireland being rarely level, but rifing into hills. 
The plants found in them are heath, with fome bog-myr¬ 
tle, and a little fedgy grafs. They furniffi an abundant 
fupply of good fuel; and, unlike marlhes, they are not 
unwholefome. The bog-waters, fo far from emitting pu¬ 
trid exhalations like ftagnant pools, are of an antifeptic 
and ftrong’y-aftringent quality, as appears from their pre- 
lerving for ages, and even adding to the durability of, the 
timber which is found buried beneath their furfaces; and 
from their converting into a fort of leather the fkins of 
men and animals who have had the misfortune to be loft 
and remain in them for any length of time. 
A board has recently been appointed by the houfe of 
commons to enquire into the nature and extent of the 
feveral bogs in Ireland, and the practicability of draining 
and cultivating them. The firft Report of thefe commif- 
fioners, dated June 10, 1810, was in the fame month or¬ 
dered to be printed. This interefting document contains 
the ftatement of Mr. Griffith, one of the engineers em¬ 
ployed in the furvey of the vaft bog of Allen ; and con¬ 
cludes with the following general obfervations by the 
commiffioners : 
“ In forming our opinions, we derived our principal 
affiftance from the Great Ordnance Survey of Ireland, 
executed by general Vallancey, the chairman of our board, 
it being the only map which defines either the fituation or 
the boundaries of the bogs with any tolerable accuracy. 
359 
From infpection of this map, we are enabled to confider 
the greater part of thefe bogs as forming one connected 
whole, and to come to the general conclufion, that a por¬ 
tion of Ireland, of little more than one-fourth of its en¬ 
tire fuperficial extent, and included between a line drawn 
from Wicklow Head to Galway, and another drawn from 
Howth Head to Sligo, comprifes within it about fix-fe- 
venths of the bogs of the ifland, (exclufive of mere moun¬ 
tain-bogs, and bogs of lefs extent than five hundred acres,) 
in its form refembling a broad belt drawn acrofs the centre 
of Ireland, with its narrovveft end neareft to the capital, 
and gradually extending in breadth as it approaches to 
the Weftern Ocean. This great divifion of the ifland, 
extending from eaft to weft, is traverfed by the Shannon 
from north to fouth, and is thus divided into two parts; 
of thefe the divifion to the weftward of the river contains 
more than double the extent of the bogs which are to be 
found in the divifion to the eaftward ; fo that, if w r e fup- 
pofe the whole of the bogs of Ireland, exclufive of mere 
mountain-bogs and of bogs under five hundred acres, to 
be divided into twenty parts, we ffiall find about feven- 
teen of them comprifed in the great divifion we have now 
defcribed, twelve to the weftward and five to the eaftward 
of the Shannon ; and of the remaining three parts about 
two are to the fouth and one to the north of this divifion. 
Of the pofitive amount of their contents we have as yet 
no data that can enable us to fpeak with precifion; but 
we are led to believe, from various communications with 
our engineers, that the bogs in the eaftern divifion of the 
great diftriCt above defcribed amount to above 260,000 
Englifh acres, which, in the proportion already mentioned, 
would give rather more than one million of Englifii acres 
as the total contents of the bogs of Ireland, excluding 
however from confideration mere mountain-bogs, and alio 
all bogs of lefs extent than five hundred acres, of each of 
which defcriptions the amount is very confiderable. Of 
the extent of the latter fome idea may be formed from a 
fact which we have learned from Mr. Larkin, that in the 
fingle county of Cavan, which he has furveyed, there are 
above ninety bogs, no one of which exceeds five hundred 
Irifh acres, but which taken collectively contain above 
11,000 Irifti, which is equivalent to above 17,600 Englifii, 
acres, befides many fmaller bogs, varying in fize from five 
to twenty acres. 
“ Moll of the bogs which lie to the eaftward of the 
Shannon, and which occupy a confiderable portion of the 
King’s County, and the county of Kildare, are generally 
known by the name of the Bog of Allen. It mull not 
however be fuppofed that this name is applied to any one 
great morafs; on the contrary, the bogs to which it is 
applied are perfectly diltinCt from each other, often fepa- 
rated by high ridges of dry country, and inclining towards 
different rivers, as their natural directions for drainage, 
fo interfeCted by dry and cultivated land, that it may be 
affirmed generally, there is no fpot of thefe bogs, to the 
eaftward of the Shannon, fo much as two Irifti miles dif- 
tant from the upland and cultivated diftrifts. The diltriCt 
reported on contains 36,430 Englifii acres, and forms the 
eaftern extremity of the Bog of Allen. 
“ There are many, we believe, who confider the bogs 
of Ireland to be low and marfhy traCts of country, not 
very diftimilar in their compofition from the fens of Lin- 
colnfttire. Others, aware that the fubftance of which they 
are formed greatly differs from that of the fen-diitriCls^ 
attribute neverthelefs the origin of both to pretty nearly 
the fame caufes; while an opinion more prevalent, and 
perhaps not lefs erroneous than either of the foregoing, 
attributes their formation to fallen forefts, which are f up¬ 
pofed at fome former period to have covered thefe diftricts, 
and to have been deltroyed either by the effects of time, 
or by hoftile armies in the early wars of Ireland. 
“ It appears from Mr. Griffith, that each of the four 
bogs included in the fubjeCt of his Report, is a mafs. 
of the petuliar fubftance called peat, of "the average 
3 1 thicknefs 
