3-052-650 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Irish Sketches: bog village, County Roscommon, 1880. 'Peat bogs...cover a considerable portion of the plains in this region of Ireland. The average depth of these bogs is commonly from sixteen to twenty-five feet, but some reach thirty to thirty-five feet, and the extreme depth observed is forty-seven feet. More than two-thirds of the space occupied by these bogs is at the west side of the river Shannon, while those which lie to the eastward of the great river are generally known under the name of the Bog of Allen. The Census Commissioners, in their first report, divided the whole of Ireland into twenty-five great districts, assigning a number of acres to each, and giving a sum total of more than one million acres thus occupied. Subsequent surveys, including mountain bogs, gave the total extent of red bog as 1,576,000 acres, and the total extent of peat soil forming the covering of mountains as 1,255,000 acres. At the present time the total area of turf or peat bog is estimated at 2,830,000 acres, nearly one seventh of the island. Of this total 1,576,000 acres are flat bog, spread over the limestone plains, nearly the whole of which could be profitably drained and converted into arable land. The remaining 1,254,000 are mountain bog'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.