into bogs is said to be from the pen of Sir Walter Scott, and it is certainly characterised by that accuracy of observation and felicity of expression for which he is so remarkable :

"Extensive forests, occupying a long tract of tolerably level ground, have been gradually destroyed by natural decay, accelerated by the increase of the bogs. The wood which they might have produced was useless to the proprietors; the state of the roads, as well as of the country in general, not permitting so bulky and weighty an article to be carried from the place where it had grown, however valuable it might have proved had it been transported elsewhere. In this situation the trees of the natural forest pined and withered, and wer ethrown down with the wind; and it often necessarily happened that they fell into, or across, some little stream or rivulet, by the side of which they had flourished and decayed. The stream being stopped, saturated with standing water the soil around it; and instead of being, as hitherto, the drain of the forest, the stagnation of the rivulet converted into a swamp what its current had formerly rendered dry. The loose bog earth, and the sour moisture with which it was impregnated, loosened and poisoned the roots of other neighbouring trees, which, at the next storm, went to the ground in their turn, and tended still more to impede the current of the water; while the accumulating moss, as the bog earth is called in Scotland, went on increasing and heaving up, so as to bury the trunks of the trees which it had destroyed. In the counties of Inverness and Ross, instances may be seen, at the present day, where this melancholy process, of the conversion of a forest into a bog, is still going forward."

When a peat-bog or moss has begun to form, there is no limit to its increase, save the pressure of the water which it contains. In the part of Ireland

that has been mentioned that is, from the county of Cavan to that of Kildare, a bog occupies the summit level instead of mountains, and is in some places at least fifty feet in thickness; and though there be partial islands of more firm soil in the extent of it, the highest grounds are composed of peat. In many parts of Scotland, too, the bogs occupy the summit levels, and are found with a river flowing from the one extremity to the eastern sea, and from the other to the western.

When these bogs are situated high, and have their surfaces sloping, they are comparatively compact, though at a little distance from the surface they always contain a great deal of moisture. But when they are on less elevated situations, and the surface is partially covered with grass, they are often of very soft consistence below, while the grass forms a tough skin on the surface. In Ireland these are called moving-bogs, and in Scotland quaking mosses. They are very perilous to travellers, and cannot in general be pastured by cattle.

In seasons which are very rainy, those bogs are apt to imbibe a greater portion of moisture than the surface can retain; but as the surface is not of a kind through which the water can percolate and escape quietly, a disruption takes place; and when, which is by no means unfrequently the case, the bog is situated on a base higher than the adjoining cultivated field's, it bursts, and covers them with a black deluge.

These burstings, or motions of bogs, are by no means unfrequent in Ireland, where there have been some of very recent occurrence; but one of the most singular is that of the disruption of the Solway Moss on the confines of England and Scotland, which took place on the 16th of December, 1772.

The Solway Moss occupied an extent of about

thirteen hundred acres, had a comparatively tough surface, or covering, but was very soft beneath, and vibrated very much when trod upon. So dangerous

was its surface, that a number of the army of Sinclair, in the time of Henry VIII., were lost in it, more especially those who were on horseback; and it is said that the skeleton of a trooper and his horse, and the armour of the rider, were found, not long before the disruption of the moss. The Solway Moss stretched along an eminence, varying in height from fifty to eighty feet above the fertile plain which lay between it and the river Esk. The centre of the surface was comparatively flat, and consisted of very loose quagmires, interspersed with hummocks, or hassocks, of coarse grass. Previous to the 16th of December there had been very heavy rains, and the waters accumulated from their not being able to find vent. The surface rose, till the pressure of the water became too great for its strength, and then it burst with considerable noise, and descended into the plain, carrying ruin wherever it went. The time of the bursting was about eleven at night on the 15th, and the inhabitants of the farms and hamlets that were nearest to the moss were surprised in their beds by the unexpected visitor.

In the rate of its progress the eruption of this moss resembled those of the lavas of Etna and Vesuvius, which, when in a half-consolidated state, creep over the plains, and cover them with ruin. In consequence of the slowness of its motion no lives were lost, but many of the people escaped with difficulty. It is much more easy to imagine than to describe the consternation into which the poor inhabitants of Eskdale were thrown by this event. They were a simple rustic people, not a little superstitious; and, therefore, when the dark and semi-fluid mass began to crawl along their plains, awakening them

from their sleep by its invasion, they could not but be alarmed. The attempts to escape from the houses led to new alarms; for when the door was opened a torrent was ready to enter: and they to whom the visitation first came were, both from that visitation itself, and from ignorance of its real cause, in very great consternation. They, however, spread the alarm; and driving their cattle before them, and carrying their children and the most valuable and portable of their household articles, they roused their neighbours as they went. It was fortunate that the inhabitants were scattered over the country, for had they been collected into a village, there can be little doubt that the alarm and confusion would have occasioned the loss of many lives. But, though the people themselves, and, generally speaking, their cattle escaped, they were, for the most part, obliged to leave their corn to be buried under the black deluge. When the morning dawned, the appearance of their homes was sadly changed. Instead of fields, and little hedge-rows, and cottage-gardens, with all the other interesting features of a rich and rural country, there was one black waste of peat earth. Some of the cottages had totally disappeared, others presented only the roof, the eaves of which were at least eight feet from the ground. When first seen, the extent that the moss covered was not less than two hundred acres. Successive torrents of rain that fell afterwards augmented the mischief, till ultimately the whole surface covered extended to at least four hundred acres. The highest parts of the moss had subsided to the depth of about twenty-five feet, and the height of the moss on the lowest parts of the country which it had invaded was, at least, fifteen feet.

The bursting of the Solway Moss resembled, to a certain extent, the letting out of a dam. Between it

and the cultivated plain, the bottom of the moss was lower than the general level of a sort of. ridge that formed the boundary between them. But in this ridge there was one depression, not unaptly called the " Gap;" and through that the flood of moss and water descended. This gap was from 100 to 150 feet in width; and there can be no question that the resistance which the fluid met with in it tended to the safety of the people: for had the whole come upon them in a continued sheet, the danger and difficulty of escape would have been much greater.

Pine is not the only timber found in those bogs, though it be the kind most frequently met with in a mountainous country,―more especially of those places where forests of pines are still growing, or which are favourable to their growth. Pines do not thrive in low situations, or by the banks of slow-running rivers, The timber which grows best in those situations (in cold countries) is alder, and it is consequently the timber most generally found in river-side peat; though, in consequence of the warmth, peat is not very apt to form in such situations. The greater accumulations of it are on higher grounds, and often on the summits of the mountains.

In some places, which are of intermediate height, there often appears a singular stratification in the bogs, which indicates a succession of changes of climate, all for the worse; and as the junctions of these strata are sometimes pretty well defined, it is difficult to account for them by any regular succession of seasons. We are thence led to conclude, that, after the one species was formed, a pause of some years at least must have taken place before the soil and climate were in a fit state for the production of the others. There may be exceptions: but in so far as our observation has gone, the oak forms in