The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1873-11-16

BY which the glacier forps iss moraines.
The now fssucd Of place whore tho bog
wss cut away and formed . high turf bank;
and whom NO walked 10 ON tho high bog.
ed to be scari6ed, ~ It were, into large
crevices, that might still farther remind
orc Of the paeuomena Of tho glacier. They
were evidently the enlargement Of open
ings caused BY former movements and all
those peculiar openings, forming long,
narrow, and deep po"ls. that are commonly
found In high and very wet bogs, may pro-
baby, be derived from simiIar Disturb
ances. The bog, which was formerly level
now showed large basin-like depression
of some 600 yards long and 400 broad /;
and from here, evidently, the QUITO wing
stuff was elected from below. The ere
vices were quite empty of the water that
ened, and were all partly flled with fresh
mud pressed mp as the general surface
subsided. We walked across the depres
sion with some difficulty, aud not perhaps,
without danger, and found that, although
the former water Of the pools had general
that rose in several places, and were soon
again absorbed in the broken surface Of
the bog. The present length of the out
fow is about 5000 yards, with a mean
breath of 800, and depth of 2; but this is
by NO means the entire discharge, for a
large Qu8uClCy Ot 6CuH u&S O06Q CaFrlSu Oh
by the rivulet into the Dnnmere river,
which it has discofored for miles. 1t will,
therefore, be q safe estimate If We cay that at
least two mifttoa CUBIC feet Of bog stuff
have been already forced down the valley,
and the flow still continues. The dls
charge, large as it may appear, lie but small
indeed compared to the flows Of mud which
occur In other countries, where, however,
they are chiefly of volcanic origin. A
celebrated mud eruption in Quito, in 1897,
was attributed to the bursting open of
large sueterranean cavities filled with
water, and the stuff carried along by the
food was sufficient to fill valleys thou.
sand feet wide to a depth of six hundred
feet. The valley from the bog to the bridge
of Dunmore extends about two and q half
miles and we found by an aneroid that
the surface of the bog was about sixty feet
higher than the water at the bridge. 1t
seems made for moving and lift is to be
present kind, an extensive system Of
drainage will have to be completed by
some authorities whom it might be just
now very difficult to specify. As for stop
ping or even checking the present outflow
it need not be thought of though fine fall
of forty feet in the length of half mile
would seem to suggest a cut from the bog
to the river on the south. The damage al
ready done is very great and permanent,
for the muddy deposit lies too deep on the
land for removal. A large quantity of cut
and uncut oats and dried turf has been
destroyed, and the loss, unfortunately. af-
fects very poor people. No lives, however,
were lost on the present occasion, though in
stances are not wanting OF the destruction
of human life by moving bogs. In the
year 1745 there was a remarkable move
mene of the bog OF Addergooi; piace
within nearly q mile of the bog now in
motion, but the phenomenon seems to be
of different character from the present.
On the former occasion the Whole bog
moved bodily from top to bottom, like q
floating iceberg, while the recent eruption,
consisting of a flow of mud from the in
terror, rather reminds us of the aUulsa els
cero of a Virgillan Etna.