Seeing the Moving Bog is very
popular, I decided to post a collection of Bog articles, I hope you do find them
interesting.
Regards Nancy.
The Wallaroo
Times and Mining Journal. Port Wallaroo, SA.
14 Jan 1874
AN
IRISH BOG.
A week or
two ago we (Farmer) gave an account of a bog in Ireland changing its locality. A correspondent of the Standard
tells us in the first instance the bog of
Dunmore gave no indication of its hostile intention towards the cultivators of
the soil.
It was placid
and as pleasant to look at as any other undrained peat mosses in the county,
and they by far too common.
But,
according to our contemporary's correspondent, it suddenly broke its moorings,
and then the farmers in the threatened parts were compelled to retire before
the inundation, which at once consumed every foot of one holding.
The news spread
like wildfire, and were night crowds had assembled to look upon a sight
unparalleled in that locality during a century and upwards, for it was in 1745
that, the bog of
Adrigool, only a mile distant, changed its site.
The half concrete
half fluid mass, having once bursts its bounds, continued its advance, driving
before it the broken crust of the shell of the firmer land which had yielded to
its- immense pressure down the incline from Carrokeel to Dunmore, and
overwhelming whatever it encountered.
Three
farm-houses were buried, and over 200 acres of good land are utterly lost,
being covered in some places to a depth of even ten feet.
The bog had burst at a point where a
turn bank had failed to sustain its weight.
At this spot
there was an immense depression, showing the quantity discharged, for
previously the bog was
level.
The crater,
or great basin, hollowed out by this subsidence is not less than 1 ½ mile in
circumference.
From the
middle of the crater a constant ebullition of bog stuff, brown and very watery, flows in the wake of the
great torrent.
Nothing
could exceed the desolate aspect of this huge and ugly deformity.
It is to-day
not more than ¾ of a mile from the little town of Dunmore, and continues
flowing towards it steadily, surely, and with a crawling strength that no
hastily devised barrier can resists.
Taking other
judgments in preference my own, I venture to set down the present length of the efflux at nearly2 miles from its source to the
limit, it had reached, and which it is incessantly extending.
Its average
breadth is perhaps ¼ of a mile.
Its depth it
is more difficult to indicate, as this measurement varies from the ground,
which is, however, very level along by the current.
At least
2,000,000 cubic feet of bog stuff,
it has been calculated, have been forced down the valley already.
This
calculation will, there is reason to dread, be largely increased before the
flow ceases.
The worst of
the damage already done is that it is likely to be permanent in its effects, unless
indeed the foreign matter continues its locomotion, and branches itself to some
locality where it will affect no industrial interest.
As it is, a
wide extent of capital has been converted into black swamp; several families
have been ruined, not only by the loss of their holdings and homes, but by the
destruction of their crops, their firing, and other property which there was no
time to save.
It is
pitiable to see one of these ill-fated tenements surrounded by the filthy ooze
of the bog, with no trace
visible all around, of the green fields and cheerful harvest stubble that the
occupants of the deserted dwelling looked upon from its threshold only a
fortnight ago.
The valley
is frightfully disfigured, but the effect on the landscape is of course a very
minor consideration.
It is
unnecessary to say that great uneasiness is felt by those whose property lies in
the path of this destroying agency.
Fears are
expressed for the safety of the town-itself, for should the slimy stream be not
somehow diverted in its course, it is not unlikely, provided it continues moving
at its present rate, to visit Dunmore.
The calamity
is laid at least in this locality, at the door of that negligence of national
interests which has made no honest effort to reclaim the bog lands of Ireland, or to pursue
adequate satisfactory system of arterial drainage in the country.
Steps were
then taken in this district over a quarter of a century ago, but the work fell
through after some years’ desultory pudding, and Dunmore.
Like many
other parts of Ireland, has been since left at the mercy of a misfortune which
might have been averted.
The potato
famine in Ireland was the means of the abolition of the duty on corn it is our
fervent hope that the floating bog of
Dumore may be the occasion of getting Ireland drained, and consequent
increasing the food of the people of the United Kingdom.
If the present
cultivators go where they intend, we have not the slightest doubt that their
loss will be immediately supplied by others who will take good care that no
floating bogs will again depreciate the already, through bad management, too
depreciated soil.
Illawarra
Mercury Wollongong, NSW.
7 Jan
1881
A TRAVELLING BOG.
The
correspondent of the Freeman's Journal, London, gives the following account of
the moving bog reported
at the time of the late heavy rains. The bog is known as Mylerstone Bog.
It adjoins
the village of Robertstown, and supplies the country all around with turf, the practice
being for its poor people to rent a certain portion from the landlord, cut the
turf, and retail it to the householders, in this way earning whit is at best a
very precarious livelihood.
The
unprecedented rains of Saturday and Sunday night week turned the bog into a vast floating mass.
During the night it split up into two sections, one of which, comprising
upwards of sixteen acres, moved fully three-quarters of a mile from its original
position. It pursued a direct line towards a river, which the agent of the property
had had sunk not long since for drainage purposes at the expense of £50.
At the
further side of the river the ground rose to a considerable elevation.
The moving
peat, having choked up the river, had its course checked by the elevation alluded
to. It then turned at angles and followed the course of the river for 500 yards
down, completely obstructing the passage of the water, which, having no other
means of escape, spread over the low-lying lands and flooded them to a
considerable height.
The greater
part of this extraordinary occurrence took place on Sunday night, though the bog has been moving gradually
since, and may be expected to do so until the floods have altogether disappeared.
To carry off
the water a number of men are employed cutting a drain through it.
It is not
easy to give an accurate estimate of the value of the turf destroyed, but
probably £300 is not over margin. Unfortunately all the sufferers are extremely
poor people, small farmers.
Freeman's
Journal Sydney, NSW
12 Aug
1882
A MOVING- BOG.
One of those
extraordinary phenomena which rarely happen in this country took place on
Friday afternoon in East Clare.
Some
hundreds of acres of bog,
once situated between Coolrea and Scariff, on the estate of Ralph Westropp,
Esq., J.P., literally slipped its cable and began to move south-eastward with
great force, carrying away before it several patches of reclaimed soil under
cultivation, and actually swept away the main road to Limerick.
By the
latest accounts it is still moving on, and the sub inspector of constabulary of
the district has telegraphed to the county surveyor for Emergency men to repair
the damage.
Dr. Dunworth,
the dispensary medical officer of Feakle, who happened to be on professional
duty in the neighbourhood, was nearly swamped. — Irish Times, June 3.
The
Burrowa News NSW
1 Jan
1897
GREAT BOG
SLIDE.
The
moving bog in County
Kerry Ireland, is a mile and a half wide and 30 ft. deep.
It is
flowing towards the lakes of Killarney.
Bridges and
roads have been destroyed, as also have many head of cattle and much farm
produce.
The River
Flesk, which flows northward through the lower lake (Lough Leane), is blocked
by the bog.
The electric
light works recently erected for the lighting of the town of Killarney have
been stopped, and the town is in semidarkness.
The
Inquirer and Commercial News Perth, WA
19 March
1897
THE KERRY BOG FLOW.
Professor W.
J. Sollas communicated to a scientific meeting of the Royal Dublin Society recently
the report of the committee appointed by the society to investigate the
recent bog flow in
Kerry.
He said the
amount of matter displaced by the bog flow
was a million cubic yards. They had got together records of 18 similar occurrences
in Ireland in the last century, while outside Ireland they were able to get the
particulars of only four.
It appeared that the bog, immediately before the occurrence, was a viscous fluid
enclosed within a peaty envelope.
The
explanation of similar occurrences was frequently that they were caused by the
pressure or onrush of subterranean water, and regarding the Kerry bog flow the whole structure of
the country would lead geologists to suspect the existence of springs, and
hence the eruption of water from below might very probably have played a chief
part in producing the occurrence.
The occurrence
of an earthquake 10 days previously must also not be overlooked, as that
earthquake had been felt as far west as Miltown Malbay, and probably both of
these causes contributed to the flow.
Views and
sections of the valley showing the effects of the flow were then shown by
Professor Delup, Professor Lloyd Praeger, and Professor Grenville Cole,
collaborators of Professor Sollas in preparing the report.
The chairman
(Professor Joly) then invited the submission of hypotheses to account for the
occurrence, and a discussion ensued. The chairman himself said he thought the
severe easterly gale that had prevailed on the previous night had been
overlooked by the committee.
Professor Sollas, in replying, said that though he
welcomed any hypotheses on the subject, still he did not think it necessary or
correct to adduce the gale as a contributory cause.
The committee
was of one mind in attributing the occurrence primarily to the influence of
subterranean springs. It was to be regretted that in Ireland, which was par-credlence the land of bogs, they should
not be in the very forefront in discovery regarding the effective treatment of
them.
Newcastle
Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate NSW
17 Nov
1900
IRISH BOG DISASTER.
Near Lisdoonvarne,
in North-West Clare, a bog,
extending over a number of acres, apparently yielding to the effects of the recent
heavy rains, began to move towards an adjacent valley.
Gathering velocity with
every yard, the semi-liquid mass swept with terrific force across a low-lying
portion of land, and completely over whelmed a dwelling-house standing there.
It was not
at first known whether any person was in the building, but subsequently it
transpired that there were two women on the premises-a widow named Macarthy, aged
68, and a young woman named Agan, 28.
On search
being made on Wednesday the bodies were recovered.
Considerable
damage has been done to property, but to what extent is not yet ascertained.
Kalgoorlie
Western Argus WA
14 Feb 1905
IRISH BOG MOVING.
An Irish
paper has the following:
Threatened
with the terrors of a moving bog,
such as wrought great destruction in County Kerry eight years ago, the farmers
and villagers in a wide district in the west of County Roscomon are in a state
of complete panic.
Some three
miles above the village of Castlerea, a small market town with about 1000
inhabitants, lies the great bog of
Cloonsheeve, a dreary tract of peat land about 11 miles in extent.
On Saturday.
December 17, the alarming report was spread throughout the district that
the bog was moving.
At once the
entire district became panic-stricken. Between the little town and the bog stand a number of farms and
cottages, and the residents of these began to make preparations for instant flight.
In many cases
these were made none too soon, for the great mass of semi-fluid peat, 8ft. to
10ft. deep and some thousands of yards in width, steadily advanced throughout
the day, and before nightfall was within, too yards of the nearest habitations a cluster of cottages which stand on the
public road between Castlerea and Frenchpark.
The cottagers
had only succeeded in getting their belongings safely away in the direction of
Castlerea when the great brown mass swept around their homes and across the
road.
Cottages and
gardens were buried to a depth of 8ft. and soft in peat and water, and still
the slide continued.
The alarm
quickly spread among the neighbouring farms, and a general fight for life ensued.
Stock was hastily
removed from farm yards, and household stores were hurled into vehicles and
driven to Castlerea. By Sunday the bog had moved half a mile nearly in. the
direction of the town, and every farm and cottage in its wide path had been
swallowed up.
The county
surveyor with large gangs of men endeavoured to cope with the moving mass. But it’s
extent-rendered the work hopeless, and by Monday night the bow had covered a
third of the distance between its original position and the little town.
Many people
are homeless, and the little town itself is threatened with destruction. All
the residents - are prepared for instant flight: The disaster will mean heavy loss
and hardship to what at the best is but a poor community.
Bog slides have on
many occasions wrought great havoc in Ireland.
The most serious
on record occurred in December. 1806, in County Kerry when the Knocknageeha bog at Rathmore gave way and
swept everything in its course for about two miles.
A family of
eight persons living on Lord Kenmare's estate was submerged and destroyed, while
hundreds of small farmers were ruined.
There was
another serious, bog slip in
Liscannor, West Clare, in November. 1901, when much, livestock was lost.
