DANGEROUS LAND.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1151, 17 February 1874, Page 3

DANGEROUS LAND.

Major Le Poer Trench, in a, letter to the Times, communicates a vivid account from personal observation of the destructive progress of the bog of Dunmore in Ireland. "Up to a fortnight ago the bog presented the usual appearance of any other undrained bog with which the tourist in the West of Ireland is too familiar. To a casual eye it was simply a vast brown liquid mass, elevated 260 ft above the level of the sea, and totally disconnected from the surrounding pasture and arable lands by banks of high, thick turf. But by means of a small stream it communicated with the Bunmore river, three miles off, and thus formed an element of danger to intervening country. On the first day of this month came the crisis. The farmer occupying the land nearest the bog was digging his potatoes when he sud-

Idenly observed a brown mass slowly approaching him. He left bis spade in the ground and went for the neighbours. On his return the mass (which was the

(rolling bog) had half covered his po-tntoe-field, and completely hidden from sight his field of corn, with the exception of a few storks, situated on a knoll, which still remained an island in the middle of a scene of desolation. This was but the commencement. Since then the hog has continued to advance in a rolling mass, continuing its course right down the valley to Dunmore, burying on its way three farmhouses, and covering at least ISO acres of pasture and arable laud to a depth in some places of, six feet. The unfortunate victims of the three farms have been turned, by this " visitation of Providence, " farmless and homeless, with their families on the world. Major Trench, it will be seen, calls this desolation " a visitation of Providence, " Put he himself attributes to the right cause when he assigns it " to the absence of a complete and good system of arterial drainage. "

[For remainder of Hews see 4>th ]j)age^\