any examples of this were witnessed in Ireland during the last rebel lion, and many bodies have been found in bogs years after, preserved from decay and tanned in a manner by the astringent principle which is always found where vegetable fibre has been decomposed under water.
When bogs become consolidated or compressed they are called Peat-Mosses. The consolidation here mentioned must be carried to a considerable extent before the soil is capable of sustaining such a growth of timber as it is seen to have frequently borne.
An extensive tract of peat-mess (Chat-Moss) in the county of Lan caster attracted public attention some years ago, from the circumstance of the Liverpool and Manchester railway having been carried through it. The length of Chat-Moss is about 6 miles, its greatest breadth about 3 miles, and its depth varies from 10 to upwards of 30 feet, the whole of which is pure vegetable matter throughout, without the slightest mixture of sand, gravel, or other material. On the surface it is light and fibrous, but it becomes more dense below. At a con siderable depth it is found to be black, compact, and heavy, and in some respects resembles coal : it is in fact exactly similar to the composition of the bogs of Ireland, as already described.
The Moss is bounded on all sides by ridges of rolled stones mixed with clay, which prevent the immediate discharge of its waters. It is probable that this bar, by interrupting the course of the waters, originally caused the growth of Chat-Moss. This moss presents at its edges nearly an upright face ; the spongy surface of the moss being elevated at a very ahort distance from the edge from 10 to 20 feet above the level of the immediately adjoining land. The immediate substratum to the bog is a bed of officious sand, which varies from one to five feet in thickness, below which is a bed of bluish and some times reddish clay marl of excellent quality. This marl varies in thickness very considerably; in some parts it is not more than three feet, in others its depth has not been ascertained ; below the marl is a bed of sandstone-gravel of unknown thickness. It is this bed of gravel which extends beyond the edge of the bog, and prevents the direct discharge of the waters from the flat country to the north into the river Irwell. (See Camden's remarks ou this Moss, in his 'Britan nia,' voL ii. p. 966, Gibson's edition.) About 1797 the late Mr. Roscoe of Liverpool began to improve Trafford-Moss, a tract of 300 acres, lying 2 miles cad of Chat-Moss, which operation was so successful as to encourage him to proceed with the improvement of Chat-Moss, the most extensive lowland bog in England, including 7000 acres. After making a great variety of
experiments Mr. Roscoe gave it as his decided opinion ' that the best method of improving moss-land is that of the application of a calca reous substance, in sufficient quantity to convert the moss into a soil, and by the occasional use of animal or other extraneous manures, such as the course of cultivation and the nature of the crops may be found to require." In June 1833 an ancient wooden house was discovered in Drum kelin Bog, in the county of Donegal in Ireland. The framework of the house was very firmly put together, without any iron • the roof was flat and made of thick oak planks. The house was 12 Let square and 9 feet high : it consisted of two floors one above the other, each about 4 feet high; one side of the house was entirely open. The whole stood on a thick layer of sand spread on the bog, which con tinues to the depth of 15 feet below the foundation of the house. On the same level as the foundation of the house stumps of oak trees were found standing,just such as bad supplied the timber of the house; and beneath all this there are still 15 feet of peat.
Bogs not unfrequontly burst out and suddenly cover large tracts. This phenomenon happened in 1835 in Ireland, on a part of Lord O'Neill's estate, on the Ballymena road, in the neighbourhood of Randalstown. On the 19th September an individual near the ground was surprised by hearing a rumbling noise as If under the earth, and immediately after a portion of the bog moved forward a few perches, when it exhibited a broken rugged appearance, with a soft peaty substance boiling up through the chinks. It remained in this state until the 22nd, when it again moved suddenly forward, covering corn fields, potato-fields, turf-stacks, hay-ricks, Ike.. The noise made by its burst was so loud as to alarm the inhabitants adjoining, who on perceiving the flow of the bog immediately fled. It directed its course towards the river Maine which lay below it; and so great WAS its force that the moving mass was carried a considerable way across the river. Owing to the heavy rain which bad fallen for some time previously, the river forced its channel through the matter deposited in its bed, and considerable damage was thus obviated which would otherwise have occurred from the forcing back of the waters.