much as to examine if any more clothes were deposited in the same place. Probably this might be part of the clothes of a person buried there at so remote a period that the moss had risen ten feet over it. Whether a human body had lain there or not, the cloth must have been so deposited; for the solidity of the moss over and round where it was found, proves that it had not been buried in a pit dug into the moss." "The antiseptic quality of moss extends to all water in which peat has been infused. Moss-water even when stagnant, and in the warmest climates, neither acquires the putrid smell which arises from other stagnant water; nor do the plants grow or the animalcule gender, which we see like a green scum on the surface of all other stagnant water in hot weather, even in this cold climate; Captain Cook found moss-water good and wholesome after being kept long on ship-board, even in warm climates : it had never become the least putrid. Many people live in the midst of much stagnant moss-water, yet they are healthy, and live to as great ages as the inhabitants of the driest and warmest soil. No people whatever are more healthy than those who live in the most extensive and wettest mosses; while among the inhabitants of all low, damp, and fenny places, where stagnant water that has not been impregnated with moss, prevails, intermitting putrid fevers, putrid sore throats, and other malignant diseases, are very common. Wherever peat is used for fuel, and especially in the low smoky houses which abound in the muir country, vast quantities of the peatsmoke and peat-dust pass into the lungs of the inhabitants with the air they breathe, as well as into their stomachs with their food and drink, yet their health is in no way impaired thereby.' "We are informed by Wallerius,+ that the peat of Sweden yields upon distillation, beside air and water, a volatile spirit, resembling spirit of hartshorn, some volatile salt, and a fetid oil; and likewise that the fluid and saline matters in the Swedish peat amount nearly to one half of its weight; but the degree to which the peat had been previously dried is not specified." "Le Sage from eighteen ounces of French peat obtained by distillation as follows: "These principles obtained from peat by distillation demonstrate its real nature and origin, that it is essentially composed of putrid vegetable matter. From peat dug in Holland, Le Sage, indeed, besides a thickish oil, obtained an acidulated water and marine acid, and found in the residuum a small portion of selenite of Glauber's salt and sea-salt. These, however, may have been occasioned by the pit having been overflowed by the sea, which is the case with many of the turf-bogs in Scotland. Such extraneous matters must no doubt often occur in the analysis of a body so generally spread over the surface of the earth; but in peat, as in every other vegetable substance that has undergone putrefaction, though the volatile alkali abounds, no fixed alkaline salt has ever been discovered."* According to a report made to Parliament by a board of gentlemen appointed to examine the bogs in Ireland, it is estimated that they cover at least one million of acres ;+ but as "mountain bog and bog under five hundred acres" are excluded from the computation, the surface covered by them is, perhaps, much greater. The commissioners conclude that six-sevenths of the bogs of Ireland occupy a portion of the island somewhat greater that one-fourth of its whole superficial extent, included between a line drawn from Wicklow Head to Galway, and another drawn from Howth Head to Sligo, resembling in form a broad belt, stretched across the centre of the country, with its narrowest end nearer to the capital, and gradually extending in breadth as it approaches to the Western Ocean. This district includes a number of bogs, called in general the "Bog of Allen," which, contrary to the prevailing opinion in England, is not one continued morass of immense extent, but consists of a number of bogs adjacent to each other, and all contained within the belt described by the commissioners. They all, however, lie on the west side of the Shannon, and are for the most part of that kind called red bog, being very different in appearance from the deep black bog found to the south of Lough Neagh in the province of Ulster, or the high mountain bogs which I have seen in almost every part of the island. The origin of these masses of inert vegetable matter has given rise to many learned antiquarian and philosophical discussions, and notwithstanding all the modern discoveries, it appears to me to be still undetermined when or by what means they were formed. That they are not primitive or original masses of earth, I think, * Dr. Walker's Essay, p. 25-30. Aiton on Moss Earth, 71-74. + First Report of the Commissioners on the nature and extent of the bogs of Ireland, p. 4. ↑ Mr. Larkin, who made a survey of the County of Cavan for its grand jury, has ascertained that it contains 90 bogs, no one of which exceeds 500 acres; but if taken collectively, it contains above 11,000 Irish acres of bog, which are equal to above 17,000 English acres, independently of many small bogs, varying in size from 5 to 20 acres. Second Report, p. 3. is certain, because they are found chiefly in northern countries, and always cover timber, various utensils, and coins, the two latter of which are certain indications of the hand of man, previous to their existence. I have seen fossil timber, in great quantities, dug up from many of the bogs in Ireland; and it is found also in all bogs in every country of Europe. From this circumstance, many have been induced to believe, that bogs originate from decayed forests, which by some accident or convulsion of nature have been overturned and buried. Mr. Griffith, who was employed by the Irish commissioners to survey a considerable extent of bog, states, in his report, "that those bogs which fell under his observation were not produced by any cause of this kind, as trees, or the branches of trees, are rarely found in the interior of the deep and extensive bogs of Ireland, but are always met with at the edges, or near gravelly hills or islands in these bogs, lying horizontally, and in no particular direction; frequently crossing each other, and either attached to their roots or separated from them. In the latter case the stumps usually stand upright in the place where they grew, having six or eight feet of the bog sometimes above them, and three, four, or five feet, but rarely more, below their roots."* It is difficult to account for this circumstance, and therefore I am inclined, without ascribing the origin of bogs to decayed timber alone, to consider it as one of the chief causes of their formation. Dr. Anderson has combated this opinion, but I do not think with Mr. Griffith says, trees are still to be found growing on the bog edges, and in the valleys in the bogs where rivers flow. Thus, in the vale of the stream running from Lullymore by Lullyby to Cushaling, in Lullymore bog, oak, alder, aspen, birch, willow, whitethorn, and holly trees, are now growing; but I did not observe any fir-trees, though they are found in the bog." Mr. J. A. Jones, another of the engineers employed by the commissioners, reports, that "in the borings taken to ascertain the depths of the bogs in this district, no timber was met with under the surface except near their edges, and it was usually oak, deal, or yew." Mr. Edgeworth, employed also as an engineer, speaking of the district which he examined, says, that "it forms a considerable section of a large circular bason surrounded by hills rising in the counties of Leitrim, Longford, Cavan, Westmeath, and Roscommon. It is probable that these hills, and the valleys between them, were covered formerly with trees, and from the remains and exuviæ of these woods, the bogs which at present exist have gradually been formed, fresh vegetation adding to the original morass. Whether these morasses were at first formed by the destruction of whole forests, or merely by the stagnation of water, in places where its current was choked up by the fall of a few trees, and by the accumulation of branches and success.+ First Report, p. 16. + Anderson on Peat Moss, p. 64. § Second Report, p. 81. First Report, p. 16. leaves carried down from the surrounding hills, is a question that cannot now be determined. Professor Davý is of opinion, that in many places where forests had grown undisturbed, the trees on the outside of the woods grew stronger than the rest, from their exposure to the air and the sun, and that when mankind attempted to establish themselves near the forests, they cut down the large trees on their borders, which opened the internal part. When the trees were too weak and slender to withstand the influence of the wind, which, as is commonly to be seen in such circumstances, had immediate power to sweep down the whole of the internal part of the forest, the large timber obstructed the passage of vegetable recrement, and of earth falling towards the rivers; the weak timber in the internal part of the forest, after it had fallen, soon decayed, and became the food of future vegetation. Mr. Kirwan observes, that wherever trees are found in bogs, though the wood may be perfectly sound, the bark of the timber has uniformly disappeared, and the decomposition of this bark forms a considerable part of the nutritive substance of morasses.* Notwithstanding this circumstance, tannin is not to be obtained in analyzing bogs Their antiseptic quality is, however, indisputable; for animal and vegetable substances are frequently found at a great depth in bogs, without their seeming to have suffered any decay. These substances cannot have been deposited in them at a very remote period, because their form and texture is such as were common for centuries ago. In 1786 there was found, seventeen feet below the surface of a bog in my district, a woollen coat of coarse but even net-work, exactly in the form of what is now called a spencer. It fitted me as well as if it had been made by a modern tailor. A razor with a wooden handle, some iron heads of arrows, and large wooden bowls, some only half made were also found, with the remains of turning tools. These were obviously the wreck of a workshop, which had been probably situated on the borders of a forest.”+ Mr. William Trench, of Cangor Park, near Roscrea, in a letter I received from him, dated October 25th, 1810, says: "bog timber, for the most part, is found in this country, to lie from south-west to north-east, which I think may be easily accounted for, if we suppose it to have been thrown down by the prevailing wind of the * Although I accord very much with the opinion which Mr. Kirwan has formed, I beg to say, that he is mistaken in thinking that the bark has uniformly disappeared. I have observed the bark of various trees taken from bogs in different parts of Ireland. Dr. Walker believed the same fact of the timber found in the mosses in Scotland, and as Mr. Kirwan imagines, supposed that the trees had decayed from age, and that the bark had dropped off before the stock fell, on which Mr. Aiton remarks," if he had examined fossil wood with attention, he would have found that much of it still retained the bark, at least on the under side. The bark will often be found adhering to the lower side of the tree, or visible under it when the upper side of the same tree is consumed to near the centre. This proves that the tree was entire when it fell. The under side, being soon enveloped in the moss, was preserved from corruption, while the upper side, being more years exposed to the atmosphere before the moss rose over it, was much more injured." Aiton's Treatise on Moss, Glasgow, 1805, p. 30. + Second Report, p. 174. country, for all the trees here are found to incline in that direction, owing to the frequency of the wind from the west or southward. The timber which I have found, but in particular the oak, appears to have lain for very different periods. In general it is quite black, but I have found some in which that hue was only an inch deep, and the remainder of the brown colour usually exhibited by timber cut in our own time. Since you were in Ireland, a lake which you may possibly have observed between this place and the house of my brother,* has been drained so far, that the surface of the water now stands about four feet below its former level; more than one half of it has been left dry, and it appears that three-fourths of its banks are bog. The bottom consists of blue shelly marl, which seems to extend to a great depth, and when dry it is exceedingly light. In the highest part of this reclaimed land, which is about the middle of the old lake, there is seen a circular part resembling in shape the top of an immense tub, about sixty feet in diameter. The large planks which form the staves are from one to ten feet broad, and about six inches thick, quite straight, as far as it has yet been possible to trace them downwards. None of them have been raised without cutting them. At present there is no appearance of either ax or saw having been used in the formation of them." In a bog belonging to Colonel Heyland, in the county of Derry, there was found, under a large tree which some men were raising, a considerable quantity of matter resembling coagulated blood, a part of a man's hat, and an instrument which might be used for picking pockets, as it folded up into a small space; it had handles like a pair of scissars, and when opened darted out to the length of a yard, exhibiting a long hook at the end. I heard at Colerain of a corpse being found in a bog with its clothes and shoes on, together with shoemaker's implements, which seemed to indicate that the body was that of some shoemaker. In the county of Kerry, great quantities of pine and birch timber are found in some of the bogs; in others there are no trees. Mr. Ensor, of Ardress, county of Armagh, says, in a letter which I received from him: "Do you know that the trees found in the bogs have been burned down? There is now in my yard a fir tree of considerable dimensions, one-third of which was burnt; and I have had in my possession also oak-trees which were incrusted with charcoal." Some arrow-heads, wooden bowls, three sacks full of nuts, and a coat of an ancient texture and construction, were, in the year 1737, dug from under a moss fifteen feet deep in Kilkenny, all of them in a high state of preservation. Oak and fir, still fresh, were found in a bog south of Knoctopher.§ * Mr. Francis Trench, of Sopwell Hall. + Weld's Account of Killarney, p. 98. Archæologia, vol. vii. p. 3. |