It is not a little curious (says an able writer of the last generation) to compare the soils which are productive in Ireland with those which bear the highest character for fertility in England; from which comparison it will be discovered that the moisture of the climate makes a compensation for the absence of many conditions which are requisite in drier countries.

The favourite spots upon which the ancient towns of England have grown up are upon the red marl; and out of twenty-two cathedral cities nearly two-thirds are thus situated. In Ireland the greater part of the chief towns are placed either upon, or immediately adjacent to, the mountain limestone. Waterford, Lismore, Fermoy, Carrick-onSuir, Clonmel, Cahir, Limerick, Cork, Sligo, Enniskillen, Dublin, Kilkenny, Carlow, Tralee, and others, are thus circumstanced. This limestone, so important to Ireland, exists in great plains in the central counties, and appears here and there in narrow strips throughout a great part of Munster, so that but little land in this province, excepting the mountains in the south-west angle, lies at an inconvenient distance from it. This circumstance in England would make the adjacent poor soils extremely valuable; but, in the sister country, the want of farming capital leaves the cultivator almost entirely to the inherent fertility, and prevents him from taking advantage of the speculative good.1

CHAPTER XX.

ORIGIN OF PEAT OR TURF; OBJECTS, ORNAMENTS, ANIMAL AND HUMAN REMAINS FOUND IN BOGS; ELEVATION ABOVE THE SEA, AND DEPTH OF THE BOGS OF IRELAND-LIGNITE OR WOOD COAL-MARL; GREAT IMPROVEMENT OF SOILS EFFECTED BY THE USE OF MARL; AVAILABLE for the RECLAMATION OF IRISH BOGS-SHELL-SAND AND SEA-WEED MANURE-PROXIMITY OF ENGLAND AS A MARKET FOR IRISH PRODUCE; CONSEQUENT GREAT DEMAND ; EFFECT ON LOCAL SUPPLY.

We have already seen that the area of turf or peat bog in Ireland is about one-seventh of the surface of the island-viz.

the cliffs, from Portrush to the Giant's Causeway. In this district the chalk is often found like white marble, hardened and crystallised by its contact with the burning flood of basalt.

1 'Ireland and its Economy,' p. 10. By J. E. Bicheno, Esq., F.R.S. London, Murray, 1830.

1,254,000 acres of mountain bog, available for pasturage, and 1,576,000 acres of flat bog, capable of reclamation, spread over the central portions of the great limestone plain.

Peat is the result of the annual growth and decay, in swamps or hollows, of vegetable matter, such as rushes, the sphagnum palustre or bog-moss, and other such plants, mixed with submerged and fallen forests. It is, in fact, of the same origin (but in a much more recent stage of formation) as lignite and coal; peat being found in the post-tertiary formation, lignite in the tertiary, and coal in the secondary. On the surface of the bogs we have red, loose, fibrous turf, and as we dig down we find the hard compact peat, becoming denser and darker the lower we descend. Owing to the antiseptic property of the turf, the bogs contain, in a state of perfect preservation, the trunks and branches of trees, tree canoes, querns or hand-mills, gold and silver ornaments and coins, the bones of animals: among these, not the least interesting, the now extinct great Irish elk, Megaceros Hibernicus; and also human skeletons. The jungle formation of the tropics is of the same nature as the peat-mosses of cold and temperate latitudes.

The average depth of the peat bogs of Ireland is 25 feet; although, in some instances, they are as deep as 40 feet. They are all above the level of the sea; ranging from 25 to 488 feet above it. They generally rest on a blue clay, intermixed with marl, and under these is limestone gravel.

Lignite or wood coal, sometimes called brown coal, a variety of coal in which the woody structure may be distinctly traced, is found in extensive deposits around the southern shores of Lough Neagh, extending from Washing Bay in Tyrone to Sandy Bay in Antrim. In one boring at Sandy Bay, described by Sir R. Griffith, there were three beds of lignite, one of 20 feet, one of 25, and one of 15, giving no less than 60 feet of fuel with 16 feet of clay, in a depth of 76 feet. The lignite at

1 From the Latin, lignum, wood.

Ballintoy, in the extreme north of the county of Antrim, close to the Giant's Causeway, is thus described by Mr. Mason, in 1814::

In the hill above Ballintoy town, on the northern face of the highlands of Maghrabuy, Clegnagh, and Limeneagh, a species of coal is found resembling charred wood: it is precisely the surturbrand of Dr. Von Troil, as described by him in his history of Iceland. It is chiefly used for burning lime, and not unfrequently for fuel. The disagreeableness of its smell, which resembles that of rotten wood, prevents its more general use.1

It is still used when other fuel is scarce. The economic value of turf is 44 per cent., and of lignite 66 per cent. of that of ordinary coal.

Marl, which is an earth or clay, containing more or less of carbonate of lime, a most valuable manure, is found in great abundance in Ireland. It is formed principally from the accumulation of shells at the bottom of fresh-water lakes, gradually filled up by clay, sand, or the growth of peat. The fertilising effects of marls vary according to the proportion of carbonate of lime they contain, which ranges from 5 up to 80 or 90 per cent. The fens of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire, the mosses of Lancashire, and the sands of Norfolk have been vastly improved by the use of this manure; excellent crops of wheat being now raised where formerly an indifferent yield of oats was the produce. Whenever the bogs of Ireland become unnecessary for fuel, observes Sir Robert Kane, they have, in the marl underneath them, the best material for their own reclaiming.3

The advantages resulting from the judicious use of lime as a manure, whether in the form of marl, shells, shell-sand, limestone, limestone gravel or quicklime, are not as much availed

1 'Statistical and Parochial Survey of Ireland,' vol. ii. p. 154.

2 Johnston's 'Agricultural Chemistry and Geology,' p. 281. Dr. Sullivan says, 'Up to 95 per cent.'

3 Industrial Resources of Ireland,' p. 267.

ENGLAND A MARKET FOR IRISH PRODUCE.

81

of as they ought to be by the Irish farmer. Lime, either in the rock or as gravel, is to be found in every county in Ireland.'

Owing to the conformation of the island, with its numerous indented bays and harbours, there is hardly an acre of arable land in the country at a greater distance than fifty miles from the sea. Hence there is a general facility of procuring shellsand and seaweed as manure.

The proximity of England, as a market for her agricultural produce, now that railways and steamers have practically brought the two countries so close to each other, is a great advantage to Ireland. Were that produce double what it is, it would readily be absorbed by the sister island. As it is, all the sheep, cattle, pigs, butter, eggs, fish, poultry, oats, oatmeal, and vegetables she can spare are rapidly taken by England. The steam ferry established from the eastern ports carries all these over in a steady, regular supply, and brings back in return articles of British import and manufacture. Of eggs alone it is computed that eighty millions are annually shipped from Ireland to Great Britain. The increased facilities of transmission of late years, and also the great annual increase of the number of mouths to be fed in England, together with the diminution of the number of small farmers and of the fishing population in Ireland, have had a remarkable effect on the food supplies of some of the Irish cities and towns where certain articles of food, formerly superabundant, are now sometimes very difficult to be procured.

I have frequently seen it stated that Wicklow is an exception. But such is not the case, inasmuch as the soil of Wicklow near the sea and along the banks of the larger rivers, holds limestone, limestone gravel, and marl.

G

CHAPTER XXI.

HARBOURS OF IRELAND; CORK HARBOUR, THE IRISH NAVAL STATION; ITS GREAT NATURAL ADVANTAGES AND IMPORTANCE TO THE UNITED KINGDOMIRELAND'S LAKES OR LOUGHS; LEGEND OF LOUGH NEAGH-ROYAL AND GRAND CANALS-RIVERS OF IRELAND; THE SHANNON-INLAND NAVIGATION OF IRELAND; OF MUCH LESS IMPORTANCE SINCE THE INTRODUCTION OF RAILWAYS-BEAUTIES OF IRISH LAKE AND RIVER SCENERY.

IRELAND possesses 14 harbours suitable for the largest line-ofbattle ships, 17 for frigates, and over 30 for coasters. Cork harbour, on the north of which lies Queenstown,' is the Irish naval station. Conveniently situated, safe, capacious, and completely landlocked, it is one of the finest harbours in the world. Sometimes over 500 ships may be seen riding on its waters.2 In the late war, in the year 1812, it held at one time, in addition to the usual number of vessels, two fleets of merchant ships, with their convoys, one arrived home, the other outward bound, numbering over 600 sail. The circumstance is remembered by some of the old inhabitants, who describe how crowds flocked from different parts of the country to witness the sight. This harbour is most easy of access, its approach being sheltered from the Atlantic gales by the projecting headlands of Mizen Head and Kinsale, with soundings gradually decreasing from Cape Clear; so that the mariner may safely grope his way into it by the lead in the thickest. and worst weather. Within the harbour, if there were appropriate jetties at Queenstown and Passage West, the largest American steamer might discharge and take in passengers and goods close alongside afloat; and at the north of Haulbowline island the largest vessels in Her Majesty's navy may lie alongside to coal afloat at low water. The results are:-1st, That

1 The name, formerly Cove, was changed to Queenstown on the occasion of the Queen's visit in 1849, this being the first part of Ireland Her Majesty ever set her foot on.

2 Such was the case as recently as September 1869.