BOFFIN'S BOWER. The name given by Mrs. Boll in. in Dickens's Our Mutual Friend, to the place she mode her home, as being more cheer fill than its original of Harmon's Jail.
BOG (Gael. bogom quagmire, Ir. and Gael. bog, soft, moist). Wet land covered with moss, and often underlain by it to a variable depth. Owing to the spongy character of the material, bogs are often saturated with water and eonverted into a kind of quagmire. The term 'peat-bog' is especially applied to those swamps or bogs which are underlain by an aceumulation of peat. a vegetable gathering caused largely by the growth and decay of sphagnum. or bog-moss. are especially abundant in the north temperate regions, nmeli of Ireland and por tions of England. as well as northern Germany, Nova Scotia. and Canada being covered by them. reports that at the battle of Solway, in 1512, a fugitive troop of horse plunged into the moss, which instantly (dosed in upon them: and in the end of the Eighteenth Century this tradition was confirmed by the diseovery, made during peat-digging, of a man and horse in com plete Bogs often by a process of lake-fill ing. ponds or even estuaries being partly filled by the inwash of sediment and partly by the spread of bog-mosses from the shore into the ever-shallowing water. As soon as one layer of bog-moss decays another growth springs up.
A distinction is sometimes made between red begs and black bogs. the former being filled by vegetable matter in a more advanced stage of decomposition. it is said that. the red hogs of Ireland cover 1500.000 acres. The term 'climb ing bogs' is applied to those formed on hill sides. the supply of moisture being kept up by mountain springs. In many regions the peat is du, and utilized for fuel. When properly treat ed. bogs also yield arable land of 11111(.11 value. The reclamation of hogs for farming purposes involves the proper drainage of the area. and the plowing up of the soil in order to aerate it and bring about the necessary oxidation proc esses. In some eases clay is plowed in. although this requires time and expense. Oats are usu ally the best first crops. In Devon many bogs are cultivated as grass-meadows. In many lo calities in Great Britain the people have used •pattens'—boards fastened upon the soles of the feet—for walking over hogs.
The bog-oak is a tree favoring peat-bogs; the wood of the tree is black and dense, and is used for carvings. The word bog is of Irish origin, being from a Gaelic root that signifies a bob bing, quaking motion. See BENT GRASS; WASTE