The Indianapolis journal., 1897-01-04

have lived anywhere along the west coast
/ OF Kerry you must needs have known and
/ loved the hogs that reveal many charms
to those familiar. Chamber 10 the top OF
any range and the bog is there before yoL
az an angie that makes one marvel at the
depth OF the pocket OF water that keeps
| the peat moss from tumbng into the
ocean. Some of il has slipped its moorings.
Tor the glacier-planed. crag-cncumbered
hillside mas its thin coat OF peat binding the
loose rocks together.
Even here the only spots entirely denuded
are those lately cut and skinned. These
pats are nlled with inky water while along
| the edge of the cuttings fronds OF bracken
already fringe the lips; and spagnum
wound White fiowered cudweed sedums
and bed straws. ragwecd and red moor
grass sprlng up. and heather bushes above
bog on "A bird's-eye view. To get up 10 the
| spot where plant life il seen To clothc the
one mas TO scramble up hill through a
wood that has been buliied and buffeted by
winds that swept clear FROM the reeking
banks OF Newfoundland.
Just jungle of brambles. distorted. tor
! tured yews. hazel and brackcn. dwarf oaks,
stunted frs. The ground beneath Is wet to
the point of saturation and the atmosphere
like that of the everglades of Florida. Vines
and grass and moss smother the trees. and
IVY strangles and drags down many a trunk
that withstood Atlantic gales. Dead fun
guSeS take possession. pink-hpped. battered
parasl'eS for eS rhls Is torelns h9nss for an
acle is all that assures you of the absence
of reptiles.
PICTURESQUE DESOLATION.
Just you emerge from the wood the
salt air comes up crisp and tingling on the
dixie that holds bog from wood. From the
warm stagnation of the jungle you emerge
on bracing ridge and inhale the scent
of gorse flowers and heather. Everything
is astir. Denizens of wood and bog meet
on the dixie. Rabbits and wood pigeons,
dragon flies by millions and moths hask in
the sun. Up and down the sun-steeped
bank the gilded newt. the only true reptile
in Ireland, slips silently with regard only
for the wary fly. The natter jack toad
blinks his eyes of Jet. Below the bank the
bog lies up the mountain side. broom ana
furZe disappearing, but purple heather run
ning along the peaks and ridges and
marshy bits bristln:s with reed mace and
bog cotton. Peat lately cut stands in
chocolate colored stacks. Heathery tus-
socks accent the expanse of brown spag-
mum and ciumps of red sundews.
Carnivorous plants of innocent guise
spring from the water. from a rosette OF
green leaves a delicate violet bell hangs
pendulous from a long stem, its beautiful
corolla closing on every wandering insect.
The ground quakes, it's fairest ciump of
wayfarer. who quickly springs TO the next.
Peewits, snipe and red shank rise from the
heather The spagnum is quite dry. though
a footstep sends IL under water. Midway
IN the bog there IS still tiny lake where
teal nest, but the spagnum is sending out
its arms toward the center the peaty shore
pressed into waterproof felt. The white
petaled crowfoot springs unsullied from
water black jet.
Above the first mark the sky line in an
unbroken phaanx and below the bog.
where part OF II has been drained, trees
have been planted in the soil that warps
into great ridges and has been burrowed
by rabbits. The foot sinks in pine needles
and dry moss soft and springy a carpet
and sheeted in springtime with blue bugies
and snowy potentils. To Emily Lawless.
author of 'Grania.'' IL is all this. To the
ordinary tourist the bog is as dreary and
-
with his slane. stands knee deep I'm the bog
and slices out the fuel. This is spread and
turned and cured and carried from the
field. Then, If sheltered from the weather.
IL cheers the cutters hearth all winter with
its ruddy glow. But wet. it smokes him
out taints the potatoes, gives the children
red eyes and disgusts the pig.
HOW PEAT is MADE.
Rude portable presses are now used in the
field to extract the water and compress the
peat into smaller compass to make the cost
of handling less A few years ago parlia-
mentary commission made some tests with
peat. by which they proved its superiority
TO coal in smelling iron and running en-
gines, because of the absence OF sulphur.
The supply Is practically inexhaustible,
with 100000 acres and an average depth OF
eight feet When English coal mines are
exhausted Irish peat may run the factories.
At present the fuel is used only by the
peasants in the neighborhood of the bogs
the most primitive methods are employed in
that all bogs can be drained. covered with
clay and lime TO dissolve and make stable
the wool-like spagnum and cultivated
above, while at the same time making IL
easier to take out the more valuable peat
in lower strata. IL is now Impossible to
cut deep because of the water.
No great attempt has ever been made to
drain a bog. the tremendous expense dis
couraging the government and the little
knowledge and vast speculation regarding
the Subterranean waters discouraging the
engineers. BY the peaSantry the feat is be-
ieVed to be impossible The surfaces that
rise and fall season after season are mys-
terious and terrifying volcanoes. Pits
appear, foods gush forth and i'm such
season as this d wide area apparently
moves over into another parish conveyed
by the ever potent fairies, who have their
home in the inky depths of the water world
below.
There is something uncanny. too in the
bodies enJombed below. not given over to
corruption after the order of nature. bat
preserved witnesses to legend. tradition
and history. Have not the bogs already
given up treasure that confirms the splendid
fragment of epic of The Cattle Spoil OF
Cooley" gloriied St. Columbkill and
brought Giraldus Cambrensis to confusion?
There is more fine gold In ancient orna-
ment in the museum at Dublin than in all
the other antiquarian collections I'm Europe.
and the boGs have kept their share of IL
bright and unsullied as when the red gold
crown pressed the brow of Con OF the Hun
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