Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-01-15
BOGs OF THE GREEN ISLE.
About Their Geology and
Folk Lore.
Chicago Times-Herald.)

in the vicinity Of the lakes of Killarney,
has brought to life the old superstition
concerning the nature of boys and their
mysterious power of destruction and con-
cealment The sea gives up its dead
more readily. There are no tides IN that
solidifying mass, whose permeating
waters are blacker than the Styx.
But bog can no more move from It's
eternal moorings than can Lake Micnl-
gan. 1t can overflow, indeed, as can the
swamps of the Kankakee, and flood wide
districts. The difference would be that
i'm the swamps the sodden vegetation
would remain anchored, while In the bog
the spongy surface peat becomes loos-
ened and goes down with the flood that
moves silently and unseen beneath.
What wonder, then, If the simple pea
santry, watching the insidious ad-
vance of apparently solid peat, should
revive the legend of the days when
fairies put their shoulders under the Dos
and moved It to a distant place. In
reality, the turf wood has no density, Dut
is compacted by pressure from behind,
and it is drained dry because or It's po-
rous, nonputrescent substance.
When the food subsidies the bog VIII
he found in its ancient anchorage
dry. brown, worthless peat will be scat
tered before doors far distant; some
turf-cutters' cottages timbered with Doc
oak and matched with the spagnum'
will have disappeared, and, perhaps,
with them some hapless families. But
the stone-built towns will get an an
tiseptic wash, and the ruins sustain no
more damage than a purifying inunda-
ton. such as they have encountered
many times since saints aid the founda-
tons I'm the isle oil sanctity ana learn
ing There will not even be slime upon
tho holy walls.
Swamps are primitive masses OF earth'
or deposits of aluva along the river
courses. water soaked and choked with
decaving vegetation that gives Off
miasmatic gas. But bogs are ancient
lakes often fed by springs underneath
and feeding in their turn swift rivers.
The water Is never stagnant me TURF
is an accumulation of vegetable matter
on the surface but often twenty TO torty
feet I'm depth This vegetation has un-
dereone a peculiar change under de-
gree of temperature that prevents de-
composition AS might be well UNDER
stood. ordinary aquatic plants OF much
succulent leafage would decay. The plant
peculiar 10 the bog IS kind OF
moss. known as spagnum, something
between the woody fibre Of Spanish moss
and the porous compactness of sponge.
Given a shallow pool, mud contracting
around the roots of true water plants,
and spagnum flourishes; a parasite aD-
sorbing the other plants, sendlnS out
new ones of it's own, spreading above
and solidifying below, and gradually re-
placing the water with compacted npre'
on top each years growth Is dry, Drown
and crumbling, but eight feet below IL
is often as hard, black, ana valuable
for fuel as coal. Underneath the strata
il water to an unknown depth, and there
Is water oozing up to the surface
through the porous mass. seemingly un-
safe but I'm reality only treacherous In
tho hog holes left by the peat-cutter,
where nature has not had time TO heal
the wound with a new growth of spag-
mum. H..
The water flows away in great rivers
from all sides. for the bogs are all extern
e,ve and more elevated than the arabic
l,nds II the outlets become obstructed
tbare is an overflow, causing floods when
the matted brown spagnHm moves Oh
| the surface as the trades move the Sar-
casso Sea with its islands Of seaweeds.
| only this surface moss can fioat, as each
! successive year deposits its strata ana
constantly increases in density with pres
erra from above and below. Anything
falling into a bog hole becomes imbedded
and mummifed. Much OF the surface
must AT one time have been covered with
forest trees. as trunks OF numerous Varle-
| ties are often dug up, so perfect as 10 De
useful for the builder, but black as EBONY
and much harder than the original wood
such Is the beautiful bog oak, appearing
IKE charcoal. but capable OF being carved
into furniture and ornaments. In the
museum of the Royal Irish Academy, IN
| Dublin. there Is the wood or OAK M
| birch. and yew, skeletons OF deer d
| human body with brown hair, tuD OF
butter bleached and perforated ike
cheesa hut converted into chalk-like
substance. old armor and ornaments,
metal caskets, spear handles, and many
cher things of use IN legendary days
have been dug up, among them illqni-
mated manuscripts In hermeticaiiy seaieu
% skets. How many secrets ana urea
! sures of Irish history are locked fast III
the black embrace of the bogs VIII never
I he known But certain II Is that In the
centuries when the island was oVerrun
nv the Dane and then by the Anglo-Nor-
| man boys were often the depository VI
sacred and ancestral relics.
The aspect Of a bog Is totally uniih'
that OF a swamp, which teens WIN iuSu
Rant and noxious life. The bog Is drS
| In appearance anu No'~'N' Vs..
mocks of spagnum looking IKE dry SEQ
weed or at a distance Ike neiu OF stuD
BILE In winter Before the day OF raiifoau
travel from Dublin TO shannon harpo'
and so on to Limerick used 20 De py WAY
of the canal, and on top or ms 10 10
| above the reach of floods, CABINS were
huIIt rearing their roofs only few zee
above the bank, from which they coul'
scarcely by distinguished. pit was aus
u,bere a cabin was wanted, and bog oai
t,mbers driven in at the corners I'M
earth was banked up and the roof thatch
cd with spagnum. which compacts ans
never decays. A hole was left Tor TN
ascane Of smoke. II was astonishing u
see the swarm Of rosy. lusty children ina
came out of these huts, their heaithlui
ness explained by the antiseptic quait'e
OF the boys. ..os q.
where the food is now reported Is
mort ~ this great bog Of Allen that ex
,~aSs~vith large areas OF arabic Ian
included-from Kildare 10 East mea,n
| and from Dublin to Killarney ana VI
shannon. Some mysterious supterrahea
connection Is established by the rise =
r,vsrs flowing in three directions from IN
nm ~ Allen TO Kildare-the ancient HON
- Yin and the Fenians. that sunny
Sr,.ht eminence where the mists neve
80 nm from the sea-" The Dodder an
I,oev. the Biackwater. the siany, an
49, Royne. all rise on that slope. an
savantv-fiye miles west the pleasant wa
,srs ~ the River Lee and the sma
streams that tumble their lovely cascade