Year: 1873

Strange Scene OF Devastation in Ire


land.


EMr. w. L. Trench, writing to the
London Times to appeal TO the chari-
table for aid for some unfortunate
families, gives this account of the
bursting of an Irish bog. He says:


"I have just returned from inspec-
ting one of the most pitiful scenes of
the sort it has been my fate to witness
since I saw the remains of the village
of Visp, in the Rhone Valley, Switzer-
land, after its destruction by food
some years ago.


"The scene to which I refer is the
result of the bursting of bog, situated
about three miles east of the town of
Dunmore, in the northern part of Gal
way county. Heretofore this bog was
connected with the Dunmore River, at
Dunmore, by small stream called the
Corrabel River, flowing through con-
tinuation of pasture and tillage lands
in its course. The level of the upper
surface of the bog was formerly 260 feet
above the sea, and that of the water at
Dunmore 100 feet, showing fall of 70
feet. Up to fortnight ago this bog
presented the usual appearance of most
of our undrained Irish bogs, i. e., its
skirts, adjoining the arabic land, con
sisting of high turf banks, being ex-
ceedingly wet and spongy.


"On the first of October the farmer
occupying farm on the Corrabal
stream, near the bog, was digging his
potatoes, when he suddenly observed q
brown mass slowly approaching him.
He left his spade in the ground and
went for the neighbors on his return
the mass (which was the moving bog)
had half covered his potato field, and
completely hidden from sight his field
of corn, with the exception of few
stocks situated on knoll they still
remain an island in the middle of a
scene of desolation. This was but the
commencement since then the bog has
continued to advance in rolling mass,
continuing its course right down the
valley to Dunmore, burying on its way
thee farm houses, and covering at
least one hundred and eighty acres of
pasture and arabic land to depth, in
some places, Of six feet. The unfortu-
nate occupiers of the three farms have
been turned, by this visitation of Pro
vidence, farmless and homeless, with
their families, on the world.


"At Dunmore o small bridge has
been removed, near the junction of the
-, tka
River, to afford relief to the lands up
the valley, and bog-laden torrent is
being discharged into the latter river.
The worst may be said to be over, but
the discharging powers of that river
will be materially affected by this influx
of solid matter. The source.of this dis
aster presented o wonderful appearance.
The subsistence at the discharging point
cannot be less than about 50 feet. The
extent of the bog affected is most clear
ly defined by series of black crevas-
ses, where the upper crust of the bog
has, by the subsistence below, been torn
asunder. The whole assumes the form
of a crater half mile in diameter.


"With considerable difficulty we
piloted our way to the centre, where we
found the brown liquid bog boiling out
like stream of lava and feeding the
moving mass in the valley below. At
the point where the bog burst, the turf
banks were forced right over and round
on either side, and assumed somewhat
the appearance of 'moraines.


This and similar disasters to which
this country is liable must be attributed
to the absence of complete and good
system of arterial drainage. A similar
catastrophe occurred couple of years
ago, occasioned by the backwater of
the River Suck, near Castlerea."