The Moving Bog.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 42, 20 February 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Moving Bog.

FATAL LANDSLIDE IN COUNTY

KERRY.

AN ENTIRE FAMILY SUBMERGED.

(FROM OUR OWN COKRESI'ONDENT.)

London, January 1

With kindly consideration for unfortunate prehuman compelled to manufacture briclca without straw during other people'e holidays, Providence generally furnishes a 'sensation' of Borne kind during this flattest of weeks. . One year I can recall 'twas a sanguinary murder helped us through, on another anniversary the Oaborn ' jewel caso afforded subject tor gage reflections, and today we are greatly indebted to the moving bog. This natural phenomenon lies, or rather lay, 14 miloa from Kiilarnoy on Lord Kenmare's eatate. 1b covers 200 acrea and is 80 feet deep, so that when on Sunday night tho huge black muddy mass, developing peripatetic tendencies, moved solidly south, overwhelming everything in its road, you may guest! :i fearful panic sol) in. Jusb when tho slipstarted is not known, although some of the people living in the vicinity declared that tiny hoard a rumbling sound and faib a tremourof the earch as though of a distant; earthquake afc between three and four o'clock on Monday morning.

Whatever lime ie started, i& must have moved with appalling swiftness, tor by the time the pooplo were astir in the morning, the river of e.»rth had swept bodily aeroes the face ot the country for a mile or more, while detached portions had been carried down old watercourses, and along easy channels for several miles more.

Full in the path of the landslip stood liho cottage known as Quarry Lodge, occupied by one of Lord Kenmare'a stewards named Donnelly, his wife, and six grown children. Around the cottage wcra outhouses, in which were pig^i cabtle, and other domestic animals.

The sliding bog musb have ovorwholined them aa bhey elopt.and without tho slightodb warning. Where tha cottage stood is now a quivering jnaes of watery eurth. The only living thing bhab escaped wa9 a dog belonging bo Donuelly, which all yesterday was wandering coniusedly aboub the place where hia master's house had stood, and whining pibeously. Some considerable distance away on the surface of tho moving earth-river is the thatch roof of the cottage, the only vestige of the house remaining. In iba courae dowu the sloping Bides from the bableland the bog swept into and completely filled a quarry 20fb deep and continued its descent down into the valley. After passing over Donnelly's home ib entered an old watercourse, tributary to the River Fleak, and flowing down this soon blocked the courae of the river and caused ib to overflow its banks. All yesterday great masses of peaby earth wero being carried down the stream towards the Lakes of Kiliarney. The roads wore made impassable, and in the early morning when the country people began to set out for the market at Killarhey they wersamuzed and terror-atricken at the change that had taken place in the fivca of the country, and at tho sight of the moving river of earth. Telegraphing last nighb a Dublin correspondent says:—'The topography .of the district is completely changed. Fields have been burned into bogs, bhe public roada have disappeared, and the glen haa been converted into an ocean of liquid mud. Huge cliffs of slush have also appeared in many places, and tons of peat areebillcoming down with fearful velocity and threatening everything in their track. The bridge on the country road may be described as a miniature Niagara, hundreds of tons of water and bog whirling over ib every moment. The atraDgeab incident connected with the catastrophe, aparo from its suddenness, was the deadly silence which characterised ib. Jn the words of one of the inhabitants, the visitation came on the people like a thief in the night. A boy who passed Donnelly's house ab midnight, and noticed nothing unusual aboub it then, found on passing tho place next morning tbat the house and farm had totally disappeared. Lucidly for tho people of bhe district, the huusea are few and far between. What has bsconio of the house is a matter of conjeefcuro as the bog ha 9 been moving for miles, | and will eventually reach the Lakes of Killarney in the chape of liquid mud. Subterranean Water. People acquainted with bhe district are inclined to beliGvo that) the catastrophe ww bhe result of a subberranooua lake of water, which waa augmented by b'ne rains of the j pasb few daya. Killorney is well known to Ibe of volcanic origin. The actual cause of bhe calamity can only bo determinod by fcimo. At present the district presents the appearance of tho ecenr. of on earthquake. And as the place ia honeycombed with caves it is suggested that the incident io only bhe boginmng of n greater displacement. A house belonging to a man named Sullivan at Loatnyglißsane wa9 surrounded by tho movincj mass of peat, bufe the rumbImp of the tnud awakened Sullivan, and he and his family managed to eecape. The -curious conformation of the dietricb may be guoseed by the fact that the peab was actually forced up along a hill on which the houee stood.