Of the Bogs, and Loughs of Ireland by Mr. William King, Fellow of the Dublin Society, as It was Presented to That Society

Of the Bogs, and Loughs of Ireland by Mr. William King, Fellow of the Dublin Society, as it was presented to that Society. We live in an Island almost infamous for Bogs, and yet, I do not remember, that any one has attempted much concerning them; I believe it may be of use to consider their Origine; their conveniencys, and inconveniencys; and how they may be remedyed, or made usefull. I shall give you my thoughts, and observations on each of these; tho' I am satisfyd, that what I shall be able to say, will be very little, in respect of what would be required, on such an important subject, and so very necessary to the improvement of the Kingdom. As to the Origine of Bogs, it is to be observed, that there are few places, in our northern world, but have been famous for Bogs, as well as this; every barbarous ill-inhabited country has them. I take the Loca palustria, or paludes, to be the very same we call Bogs: the ancient Galls, Germans, and Britans retiring, when beaten, to the paludes, is the very same that we have experienced in the Irish, and one shall find those places in Italy, that were barbarous, such as Liguria, were infested with them; and therefore I believe the true cause of them is want of industry; at least industry may remove, much more prevent them. There are many Bogs of late standing in Ireland; when Odonal and Tirone came to the relief of Kingsale, they waited the Country, especially as they came thro' Connaught, which by the means of the Earl of Clanrichard, was generally loyall; and there is a great tract of ground now a Bog, that was then plowed land; and there remains the mansion house of my Lord-----in the midst of it: now if want of industry has in our remembrance made one Bog; no wonder der if a Country, famous for laziness, as Ireland is, abound with them. To shew you how want of industry causes Bogs, you must remember, that Ireland abounds with springs; that these springs are generally dry, or near dry, in the Summer time and the Grass, and weeds grow thick about the places where they burst out. In the winter they swell; and run and soften, and loosen all the Earth about them; now that swerd or scurf of the Earth, that consists of the roots of grass, being lifted up and made fuzzy by the water in the winter, (as I have at the head of some springs seen it lift up a foot or two,) is dried in the spring; and doth not fall together, but wither in a tuft, and new grass springs through it; which, the next winter is again lift up, and so the spring is more and more stopt, the scurf grows thicker and thicker till at first it make that which we call a quaking Bog: and as it grows higher, and dryer, and the grass roots and other vegetables become more putrid together with the mud and slime of the water it acquires a blackness, and grows into that which we call a turf Bog. I believe when the vegetables rot the saline particles are generally washed away with the water, as being apt to be diluted in it; but the oily or fulphureal are those that chiefly remain, and swim on the water, and this is that which gives turf its inflammability. To make this appear, 'tis to be observed that in Ireland our highest mountains are covered with Bogs, as well as the plains; because our mountains abound more with springs than could be imagined: I remember one high mountain, in the north of Ireland, has 4 Loughs on the side of it near the top; now no body living on our mountains; and no care being taken to clear the springs; the whole mountains are overrun with Bogs, as I have described. 2. It is to be observed, that Ireland doth abound in moss more than, I believe, any Kingdom; in so much that it is very troublesome, being apt to spoil fruit trees, and quicksets; I do not remember, that they, who have written of Gardening, or Orchards, mention it, which I am sure they would, had they been as much troubled with it, as we are; now this moss is of divers kinds, and that which grows in Bogs is remarkable, your light spungy turf is nothing but a congeries of the threds of this moss, as I have frequently observed, before it be sufficiently rotten, (and then the turf looks white and is light,) I have seen it in such quantities and so tough that the turf spades, could not cut it: in the north of Ireland, they, by way of jocque call it old wives tom, and curse her that buryed it, when it hinders them in cutting the turf, it is not much unlike flax: the turf-holes in time grow up with it again, and all the little gutters in Bogs are generally filled with it; and truly I chiefly impute the red; or turf Bog, to it; and from it even the hardened turf when broken, 'is stringy,' tho' there plainly appear in it parts of other vegetables: it is observable that both vegetables and Animals have very different forms, when they are kept under and when out of the water; & I am almost (from some observations,) tempted to believe that the seed of this Bog-moss, when it falls on dry and parched ground begets the Heath: however the moss is so fuzzy and quick growing a vegetable, that it mightily stops the springs, and contributes to thicken the scurf especially in red Bogs, where only I remember to have observed it. 3. It is to be observed, that the bottom of Bogs is generally a kind of white clay, or rather sandy marle; a little water makes it exceeding soft; and when it is dry it is all dust; and this contributes much to the swelling of the Bogs; for the roots of the grass do not stick fast in it; but a little wet loosens them, and the water easily gets in between the surface of the earth and them, and lifts up the surface, as a droply doth the skin. 4. 'Tis to be observed, that Bogs are generally higher than then the land about them, and highest in the middle: the chief springs that cause them being commonly about the middle, from whence they dilate themselves by degrees, as one would blow a bladder; but not always equally, because they sometimes meet with greater obstacles on one side, then on the other: whoever has seen Bogs, cannot doubt of this; and besides if you cut a deep trench thro' a Bog; you will find the originall spring, & vast quantitys of water will run away, and the Bog subsides; the Bog at Castle Forbes, (as I was informed,) subsided 30 foot; I could hardly believe that; but found by computation, that it could not be much less than half of it: I believe, these, and other observations that might be made being laid together, it is hardly to be doubted, but that I have given the true origine of Bogs: those hills, that have no springs, have them not; those that have springs, and want culture, constantly have them: wherever they are, there are great springs: the turf generally discovers a vegetable substance: it is light, and impervious to the water; the ground under it is very pervious: and all these are plainly accountable from the causes I have given. I must confess there are quaking Bogs, caused otherwise; when a stream, or spring runs thro' a flat; if the passage be not tended, it fills with weeds in Summer, trees fall across it, and dam it up; then, in winter, the water stagnates farther & farther every year, till the whole flat be covered; then there grows up a course kind of grass peculiar to these Bogs; this grass grows in tufts, and their roots consolidate together, and yearly grow higher, in so much that I have seen of them to the height of a man; the grass rots in winter, and falls on the tufts, and the seed with it, which springs up next year, and so still makes an addition; sometimes the tops of flags and grass are inter-woven on the surface of the water, and this becomes by degrees thicker, till it ly like a cover on the water; then herbs take root in it, and by a plexus of the roots it becomes very strong, so as to bear a man; I have gone on Bogs that would rise before and behind, and sink where I stood to a considerable depth; under was clear water, as some of us experienced by falling in with one leg up to the middle, and that by breaking the surface of the earth where we stood: even these in time will grow red Bogs; but may easily be turned into meadow, as I have seen severall times, meerly by clearing a trench to let the water run away. The inconveniences of these Bogs are very great; a considerable part of the Kingdom being rendered useless by them; they keep People at a distance from one another, and consequently hinder them in their affairs, and weaken them; for it is certain, that if suppose a 1000 men live on 4 contiguous acres, they can both better assist, and defend one another, then if they lived on 4 not contiguous: and therefore it were good for Ireland, the Bogs were sunk in the Sea, so their good land were all contiguous; but it is further observable here, that generally the land, which should be our meadows, and finest evenest plains, are covered with Bogs; this I observed thro all Connough, but more especially in Longford & likewise in West Meath and in the North of Ireland. These Bogs are a great hindrance in passing from place to place; in as much as that you are forc't to go far about to avoid them, and on this account the roads are very crooked in Ireland; or forc't (by vast charges to the country,) through Bogs; by these means they are long, and hard to find. The Bogs are a great destruction to Cattle, the chief commodity of Ireland; in the spring time when the Cattle are weak and hungry, the edges of the Bogs have commonly grass; and the Cattle venturing in to get it, fall into pits or floughs; & are either drowned, or (if they are found,) spoilt in the pulling out; the number of Cattle lost this way is incredible. 4. They are a shelter and refuge to Tories, and Thieves, who can hardly live without them. The 5. The smell and vapours that are from Bogs, are accounted very unwholesome; and the fogs that rise from them are commonly putrid, and stinking: for the rain, that falls on them, will not sink into them; there being hardly any substance of its softness, more impenetrable by water, than turf, and therefore rain-water stands on them, and in their pits; it corrupts there, and is exhaled all by the Sun, very little of it running away, which must of necessity affect the air. 6. They corrupt our water, both as to its colour, and taste; for the colour of the water that stands in the pits, or lies on the surface of the Bog, is tinctured by the reddish black colour of the turf; and when a shower comes, that makes these pits overflow, the water that runs over tinctures all it meets, and gives both its colour and stink, to a great many of our rivers; as I observed thro' all the North of Ireland. The Natives heretofore had nevertheless some advantage by the woods, and Bogs; by them they were preserved from the conquest of the English; and I believe it is a little remembrance of this, makes them still build near Bogs: it was an advantage then to them to have their country unpassable, and the fewer strangers came near them, they lived the easier; for they had no inns, every house where you came, was your inn; and you said no more, but put off your brogues & sat down by the fire; & since the natural Irish hate to mend high ways, and will frequently shut them up, and change them, (being unwilling strangers should come and burthen them;) Tho' they are very inconvenient to us, yet they are of some use; for most of Ireland have their firing from them; Turf is accounted a tolerable sweet fire, and we having very impolitickly destroyed our wood, and not as yet found stone coal, save in few places, we could hardly live without some Bogs: I have seen turf charc'd, it serves to work iron, and as I have bin informed, will serve to make it in a bloomery or iron-work: turf charred I reckon the sweetest and wholesomest fire, that can be; fitter for a Chamber, and consumptive People, then either wood, stone-coal or char-coal. I know not if it will be worth the observing, that a Turf-Bog preserves things strangely, a Corps will ly intire in one, for leverall years; I have seen a piece of leather pretty fresh dug out of a Turf-Bog, that had never in the memory of man been dug before; Butter has bin found, that had lain above 20 years, and tho' not fit to be eaten, yet served well enough to grease wool: Trees are found found, and intire in them, and those Birch, or Alder that are very subject to rot. The Trees are supposed by the ignorant vulgar to have lyen there ever since the Flood, but the truth is, they fell on the surface of the Earth; and the Bog, as I shewed in the beginning of this discours, swelling by degrees, at last covered them; and being of an oily vegetable substance, it, like a balsam, preserves them; the Trees burn very well and serve for torches in the night: I have seen them used as Lights in catching of Salmons: I have seen of the Trees half sunk into the Bogs, and not quite covered. I am in the last place to shew you how these inconveniencies may be remedied, and our Bogs made usefull; 'Tis certain the thing is possible; it has bin done in England, France, and Germany; and if we had the same industry we may promise ourselves the same success. I know men commonly distinguish between Bogs that have no fall to carry away the water from them; and those that have; and determine the last drainable, but not the first: but I must protest I never observed one Bog without a fall sufficient to drain it, nor do I believe there is any. But the great and weighty objection against them is the charge; and it is commonly thought, that it will cost much more than would purchase an equall scope of good good ground; an acre of good land in most parts of Ireland is about 4s per annum, and the purchase 14, or 15, years; & therefore three pound will purchase an acre of good land; and it is very doubtfull with most, whether that sum will reduce a Bog: this reasoning passes current, and is the great obstacle and impediment of this work; but if these things following were done and considered, I verily believe it would be removed. 1. An act of Parliament should be made, such as was for the building of London; that who did not in such a time, make some progress in draining their Bogs, should part with them to others that would, & allow a passage to them thro' their lands: rather then Gentlemen would let others come into their bounds, they would purchase their Bogs at double the rate, as they doe patches of land within them. 2dly 'Tis to be considered, that quaking Bogs, tho' land be never so cheap; never fail to be worth the draining; one trench drains many acres; and when dry, it is generally meadow, or the best grazing ground. 3dly Every red Bog has about it a deep marshy sloughy ground, which they call the bounds of the Bogs, and which never fails to be worth the draining: one deep trench round the Bog, doth it; by this Cattle are kept out of the Bog, and all the bounds of the Bog turned into meadow as I have frequently seen. 4thly As to red Bogs, I remember one of 60 acres, which a Gentleman drained; the land about it was 4s, 9d per acre; it was not worth any thing, but rather pernicious to his Cattle; he reduced it to good grazing ground worth 3s an acre, for 25l; which is less than 3 years purchase. 5thly Gentlemen ought to consider, that what they lay out this way, goeth by degrees, and they are not sensible of it; it goeth among the Tenants, and enables them to pay their rent the better: 'tis a work of charity, and T 3 employs employs hands, and conduces to both the ornament & generall profit of the Kingdom; and therefore they ought to dispense with it, tho' somewhat dear. 6thly That even red Bogs might be made fit for grazing, at a much cheaper rate, then they have bin hitherto, if these rules were observed: 1 a deep trench must be made round the Bog, as before; this reduces all the bounds of the Bogs, goes a great way to dry the Bog itself; and hinders at least its growing: it serves likewise as a common sink, into which all your drains vent themselves. 7thly in the Bog, observe which way the little Sloughs run; be sure to cut their drains across them; one drain so cut doth more, then 3 or 4 long ways; as I saw by Experience. 3dly the first drains on the Bog, ought not to be above 2 or 3 foot deep or wide; deep trenches ought by no means to be attempted at first; for the Bog is so soft, that they will not stand, but fill up again; neither can any body stand well in them to cut them deep: but when the surface of the Bog is cut in little trenches suppose at 20, or 40 perch, distance, it is hardly credible how much it will be dried: I remember such a little trench, drawn thro' a Bog, that was very wet, dried it, so that Cattle could graze on it all Summer; and the Bog subsided, for an hundred yards, on each side, so visibly, that one would have believed it a natural valley. 4thly a year or 2 after the little trenches are made, & the Bog a little dry; they are (at least every other trench as one sees occasion is,) to be made six foot deep and six wide, if the softness of the Bog will permit; if not, then six foot wide and 4 deep is enough; and this will certainly make the Bog usefull for grazing: in a year or 2 after, you may attempt to cut one or two of the trenches to the bottom of the Bog; for till that be done, I do not reckon the Bog secured. 5thly A Gentleman ought to oblige all his Tenants to cut cut the turf in his trenches, and likewise cut his own so, for this is just so much gain, and prevents that pitting of Bogs, that renders them deformed & pernicious to Cattle. 6thly Where a Bog is pitted, he is to cut a passage from one pit to the next for the water, and so make a communication to the common drain, and if his pits be once dried there will grow grass or heath at the bottom, fit for grasing; and they will be shelter for Cattle in storms. 7thly When his Bog is dried, it is thereby made better turf: and then he is to set out a part of it for that use, and to oblige them to cut it clear away; and the Bog being removed, the bottom will make good meadow: as I have seen in the County of Longford. 8thly if he would improve his Bog any further than grasing; he must do it either by cutting off the surface of the Bog and burning it; or else by bringing Earth and laying on it: Sanding or rather indeed Gravelling is a great improvement in this country; the land so manured will bring corn 12 or 14 years, and would bring grass, if People did not Plow it so long, as to consume all the substance of it, and destroy the roots of the grass, which are not to be recovered in many years, and then they say gravelling is bad for grass; but the contrary is apparent, especially in Bogs. I have observed by the way side where those ways pass thro' Bogs, if a little Earth hath fallen on the Bog, as some times there doth fall a little of that which they bring to mend the high way, it has turned the Bog into a green sod, with a very fine scutch grass on it: and I doubt not but the same charges, that Sands or Gravels land, would reduce a dried Bog; even to be arable; but this requires time and experience, which I doubt not but will find out many compendious and easy methods of performing these things, more than we can think of. Twere naturall to add something concerning Loughs, and and Turloughs: the naturall improvement of Loughs, or lakes, is first to drain them as low as we can; and then turn the residue of the water into fish-ponds, by planting a few Trees about them, and ordering them thus they may be made both usefull, and ornamentall. As to those places we call Turloughs, quasi Terreni lacus, or land-lakes; they answer the name very well, being lakes one part of the year of considerable depth; and very smooth fields the rest: if my memory does not fail me, Doctor Brown describes exactly the like in Hungary, or else in the way between Vienna & Venice: there are in these, holes out of which the water riseth in winter, and goeth away towards Summer, many hundred acres being drowned by them; and those the most pleasant, and profitable land in the country: the soil is commonly a marl, which, by its stiffness, hinders the water from turning it into a Bog; and immediately when the water is gone, it hardens, so that you ride thro' an even grassy field; these, if they could be drained would be fit for any use; would make meddow; or bear any grain, but especially rape, which is very profitable. They are chiefly in Connaught; and their cause is obvious enough, it is a stony hilly Countrey; the hills have cavitys in them, through which the water passes: it is common to have a rivulet sink on one side of a hill, and rise a mile, or half a mile, from the place: the brooks are generally dry in Summer; the water that should be in them, sinking between the Rocks, and running under ground; in so much as that in some places where they are overflowed in winter, they are forced in Summer to send their Cattle many miles for water. There is one place on a hill near Tuam between two of these Turloughs, where there is a hole the superstitious People call the Devils Mill; and make fables concerning it: if you stand by this place, you will hear a great noise, like that of a water under a bridge: where there is a flood in winter, one of the Turloughs overflows, and vents it self self into the hole; and the noise doth, in all likelyhood, proceed from a subterraneous stream; which in Summer has room enough to vent all its water; but in winter, when rains fall, the passages between the Rocks cannot vent the water, and therefore it regurgitates; and covers the flats. Let $GH$ be a plain parallel to the horizon; let $AAA$ be a hill; $BNB$ a flat; $CCC$ another hill; $DND$ another flat; and $EEE$ another hill: let $LIM$ be a subterraneous rivulet, that runs under the surface of the Earth; at $M$ let there be a narrow passage, which can only vent such a quantity of water; the head of the river above $L$ is suppose higher than the flat $BNB$ or $DND$; the current suppose is swoln with rain, and brings more water to $M$, then can pass: it is plain the rest must fill the passage $LI$ and at last burst out at $NN$, the holes supposed in the flats, and cover the flats; and by this means the whole Country in the winter seems full of Lakes; and again in Summer, when the passage $M$ is big enough for the water of the rivulet, the water subsides and falls thro' the holes $NN$ into the subterranean passages and in a little time leaves the flats dry till the next year. These Turloughs are hard to drain; often they are encircled with hills, and then 'tis not to be expected: often they have a vent by which they send out a considerable stream; and then it is only making that passage as low, as the bottom of the flat, and that will prevent the over- flowing: it sometimes happens that the flats are as low as the neighbouring rivulets, &c., in probability are filled; and then it is not only necessary to make the passage from the flat to the rivulet, but likewise to sink the rivulet which is very troublesome; commonly the passage to be cut is Rocky: having never seen any of them cut, I can only say thus much; 1. Before they begin, a surveyor ought to take the level of the flat with the place into which the vent is to be made, and if the place be lower the vent is possible. 2. A good computation ought to be made, what the vent will cost? how much land it will drain? what the land is worth per acre, as it is? and what it will yield when drained? and by that he will see, whether it be worth the while to attempt it. 3. The holes Nought to be opened, and digged, and fenced about, that grats, and other dirt, may not get into them; for by this means the water will in its ordinary course, get sooner away; and lastly they are to be eaten very bare towards the end of Summer, that as little grats as is possible may be spoilt by the water.