1*6 
Account of the Gloving Bog, at Kilmaleady. [Sept. 1 
The bog of Kilmaleady, from whence 
the eruption broke out, situated about 
two miles to the north of the village of 
t'lara, in King's County, is of con¬ 
siderable extent; it may probably con¬ 
tain about 590 acres ; in many parts it 
is 40 feet in depth ; and it is considered 
to be the wettest bog in the county. 
It is bounded on all sides, except the 
south, by sleep ridges of high laud, 
which are composed at the lop, of lime¬ 
stone gravel, and beneath of cavernous 
limestone-rock, containing subterrane¬ 
ous streams; but the southern face of 
the bog is open to a moory valley, about 
a quarter of a mile in breadth, which 
for ne'arly half a mile in length, takes 
a southern direction in the lands of 
Lisanisky, and then turns at right an¬ 
gles to the west, and continues gradu¬ 
ally widening for upwards of two miles. 
Throughout 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 surround¬ 
ing country, and finally joins the river 
Brusna, above the bridge of Bally- 
cumber. 
The bog of Kilmaleady, like all other 
deep and wet bogs, is composed, for the 
first eight or ten feet from the surface 
downward, of a reddish brown spongy 
mass, formed of the still undecomposed 
fibres of the bog moss (.sphagnum palus- 
tre ) which by capillary attraction absorbs 
water in great quantity. Beneath this 
fibrous mass, the bog gradually becomes 
pulpy, till, at length, towards the bot¬ 
tom, it assumes the appearance, and, 
when examined, the consistence of a 
black mud, rather heavier than water. 
The surface of the bog of Kilmaleady, 
was elevated upwards "of 20 feet above 
the level of the valley, from which it 
rose at a steep angle; and its external 
face, owing to the uncommon dryness 
of the season, being much firmer than 
usual, the inhabitants of the vicinity 
were enabled to sink their turf holes, 
and cut turf at a depth of at least ten 
feet beneath the surface of the valley, 
and in fact, until they reached the blue 
clay which forms the substratum of the 
bog. Thus the faces of many of the 
turf banks reached the unusual height 
of, 30 feet perpendicular; when at 
length, on the 19th day of June, the 
lower pulpy and muddy part of the bog, 
which possesses 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 grassy surface of which heaved 
and turned over almost like the waves 
of the ocean; so that in a very short 
space of time the whole valley, for the 
breadth of almost a quarter of a mile 
between the bog-edge and the base of 
the hill of Lisanisky, was covered 
with bog to a depth of from eight to 
ten feet, and appeared every where 
studded with green patches of moory 
meadow. 
The hill of Lisanisky retarded the 
progress of the bog for some time ; but 
at length it began to flow at right an¬ 
gles to its first course along the valley, 
where it turned to the west, and con¬ 
tinued with unabated rapidity until it 
reached the bog road of Kilbride, (which 
runs directly across the valley, and is 
elevated five or six feet above it,) and 
choked up the bridge through which 
the waters of the stream pass. This 
barrier retarded the progress of the bog 
for five days: at the end of that time, 
the accumulation was such from the 
still moving bog and the waters of the 
stream, that it flowed over the road, 
and covered the valley to the south of 
it for about half a mile, flowing with 
varied velocity, till it was again stopped 
for a few hours (as 1 understand) by a 
second road across the valley leading 
from Llara to Woodfield: having also 
overcome this obstacle, it proceeded 
slowly westward, and if its progress 
had not been checked by the very judi¬ 
cious means that have been employed, 
the whole extent of the valuable mea¬ 
dows, which compose the valley where 
it expands to the westward, must long 
since have been covered. But when 
the flowing bog had passed over the 
road of Kilbride, and the consternation 
in the country became general, at the 
desire of the lords justices, Mr. Gre¬ 
gory employed Mr. Killalv, engineer of 
the directors general of inland naviga¬ 
tion, to carry into execution any works 
that could be devised to arrest the pro¬ 
gress of the bog. Mr. Killaly at once 
perceived that the only feasible remedy 
was to draw off the water that had ac¬ 
cumulated ; and to accomplish this end 
he employed a number of labourers to 
open the course of the stream where it 
was choakecl up, and also the drains 
through 
