Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Volume 2.djvu/1050

 ADD E N DA

To the Firft Edition of

CTCLOPMDIA: Or, An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, &c.

B.

BOG

BOO

BO G, a moift, rotten fpot of earth, which finks, and gives way to the weight of the body, formed of grafs and plants putrified by fome fpring ; frequent, efpecially in Ireland. In which fenfe, bog amounts to much the fame with what in Cither places are called mops, marjhes, fens, &c. See Mo- rasse and Fen.

Ireland is become infamous for bogs: they diftinguifh be- tween a turf-bog, called alfo red-bog, out of which turf or peat is dug ; and a quaking-bog, which will fink under a man in the place where he {rands to a confiderable depth, and rife before and behind proportionably : underneath, is frequently clear water, into which a perfon flips to the mid- dle, upon breaking the furface. — Quaking-bogs frequently turn into turf-bogs.

Every red bog is incompafied with a deep marfhy doughy ground, called the bounds of the bog. — Horns and fkeletons of moufe-deer are fometimes found in bogs fourteen foot deep. The inconveniencies of begs are, that a confiderable part of the kingdom is rendered ufelefs by them : they alfo keep people at a diftance from each other, and thus hinder bufi- nefs from going forward. They occafion the roads to be crooked and circuitous to avoid them : they are a great de- ftru&ion to cattle, the chief commodity of Ireland ; which are encouraged by the grafs growing on the edges of the bogs to venture in, where they are loft : they are alfo a fhelter to tories and thieves. The fmell and vapour arifing from them is accounted unwholfome, and the fogs putrid and ftinking. Add, that they corrupt the water, both as to its colour and tafte.

Bogs have alfo their ufes : moft of the people in Ireland have their firing from them ; the wood being impoliticly de- ftroyed, and little pit-coal yet difcovered. The Irifh could hardly do without fome bogs. — The natives had anciently an- other advantage from bogs ; viz. that by means of them they were preferved from the conqueft of the Englifti : and it feems to be from the remembrance hereof that they ftill chufe to build near bogs. For the origin and formation of Bogs, it is to be obferved, that there are few places, in the northern world, but have for- merly been as famous for them, as Ireland now is : every wild, ill- inhabited country has them: the hca palujir'ia, or P'aludes, to which the antient Gauls, Germans, and Britons, retired when beaten, appear to be no other, than what we now call bogs. The like may even ftill be found in the bar- ren parts of Italy, as Liguria.

The true caufe of bogs, then, feems to be the want of in- duftry ; at leaft it is certain induftry may remove, and much more prevent them. There are many bogs of late- flanding in Ireland, formed within our own memory, through the miferies of the times, and the defolations of ci- vil war.— It is no wonder if a country famous for lazinefs fhould abound with them.

To fhew how want of induftry caufes bogs, it muft be re- membered that Ireland abounds with fprings; that thefe fprings are dry, or nearly fo, in the fummer-time, and that the grafs and weeds grow thick about the places where they burft out. In the winter the fame fprings fwell again, and run and foften and loofen the earth about them ; and the fwerd or fcurf of the earth, which confifts of the roots of grafs, being lifted up and made fuzzy by the water, be- comes dried again in the fpring; and does not fall together, but withers in a tuft, and new grafs fprings through it; which, the next winter is again lifted up : thus the fpring is more and more ftopt ; and the fcurf grows thicker and thicker, till it firft make what we call a quaking-bog: and as it grows higher and dryer, and the grafs roots and other ve- getables become more putrid, together with the mud and flime of the water, it acquires a blacknefs, and grows into what we call a turf-bog.

What confirms this account is, that bogs are generally found higher than the land about them, and higheft in the middle : the chief fprings which caufe them being commonly about

the middle ; from whence they dilate themfelves by degrees^ as one would blow a bladder ; but not always equally, be- caufe they fometimes meet with greater obftacles on one fide, than on the other. — Add, that if a deep trench be cut through a bog, you will find the original fpring, and vaffc quantities of water will run from it, and the bog fubfide ; fometimes a dozen or 15, fome even fay, 30 foot. — Laftly, thofe hills which have no fprings, have no bogs ; and thofe which have fprings, and want culture, are never without them. In brief, wherever bogs are, there are great fprings: the turf generally difcovers a vegetable fubftance ; it is light, and impervious to water, while the ground under it is very- pervious.

True, there are fome quaking bogs caufed otherwife ; as, when a ftream or fpring runs through a flat ; if the pafTage be not tended, it fills with weeds in fummer, trees fall a- crofs it, and dam it up ; then in winter, the water ftagnates farther and farther every year, till the whole flat be cover- ed ; next, there rifes a coarfe kind of grafs peculiar to thefe bogs ; it grows in tufts, and the roots confolidate together, and yearly grow higher, in fo much as fometimes to reach the height of a Man : this grafs rots in winter, and falls on the tufts, and the feed with it, which fprings up next year, and thus makes a new addition : fometimes the tops of .flags and grafs being interwoven on the furface of the water, and become by degrees thicker, till they lie like a cover on. the water ; other herbs take root in it, and by a plexus of thofe roots it becomes ftrong enough to bear the weight of a man.

Another caufe of bogs is mofs, with which Ireland abounds extremely. — That which grows in bogs is remarkable ; the light fpongy turf above-mentioned being nothing but a con- geries of the threads of this mofs, which is fometimes in fuch quantities, and fo tough, that the turf-fpades cannot cut it : in the north of Ireland they call it old wives tow ; not being much unlike flax. The turf-holes in time grow up with it again, and all the little gutters in bogs, are gene- rally filled with it. In reality, to this the red or turf-bogs feem to be chiefly owing. For the draining of Bogs, to render them fit for pafture or arable, it is not impoflible; the fame having been performed in England, France, Germany, c5V. — People commonly di- ftinguifh between bogs which have no fall to carry away the water from them, and thofe which have ; the laft are repu- ted drainable, the former not. But Mr. King affures, he never obferved one bog without a fall fufficient to drain it, nor does he believe there is any. In reality, the great objec- tion againft draining, is the charge, which, it is commonly reckoned will amount to much more than would purchafe an equal quantity of good ground : for an acre of this laft in moft parts of Ireland is not worth above 4 s. per annum, and 14 or 15 years purchafe ; (o that three pound will buy an acre of good land ; and it is very doubtful with moft, whe- ther that fum will reduce a bog: this reafoning pafles cur- rent, and is the great impediment of this work. To this it is anfwered, that quaking-bogs, though land be never fo cheap, never fail to be worth draining; one trench will drain many acres ; and when dry, it is generally mea- dow, or the belt grazing ground. Again, what is called the bounds of a red-bog, never fails to be worth the drain- ing; being done by one deep trench drawn round the&g-; by this cattle are kept out of the bog, and the bounds turned into meadow. — Add, that even red-bogs might be made fit for grazing at a much cheaper rate than has hitherto been done, by a proper conduit in the digging of trenches, par- ticuhrly defcribed by Mr. King. — See Pbilof. Tranfaft, N» 170. p. 948. feq. & N° 330. p. 305. Item N° 314. p. 59. Plot. Nat. Hiji. Oxford, c. 9. §. 8r. feq. Mortim. Huj- band. T. 1. /. 1. c. 2. p. 21. BOOK*, a writing compofed on fome point of knowledge by a perfon intelligent therein, for the inftru&ion or amufe- ment of the reader.

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 * The word is formed from the Saxon he, which comes