so, cattle venturing on the "quaking moss" are often
mired, or "laired," as it is termed; and in Ireland, Mr. King asserts
that the number of cattle which are lost in sloughs is quite
incredible.[1018]

_Solway moss._--The description given of the Solway moss will serve to
illustrate the general character of these boggy grounds. That moss,
observes Gilpin, is a flat area, about seven miles in circumference,
situated on the western confines of England and Scotland. Its surface is
covered with grass and rushes, presenting a dry crust and a fair
appearance; but it shakes under the least pressure, the bottom being
unsound and semifluid. The adventurous passenger, therefore, who
sometimes in dry seasons traverses this perilous waste, to save a few
miles, picks his cautious way over the rushy tussocks as they appear
before him, for here the soil is firmest. If his foot slip, or if he
venture to desert this mark of security, it is possible he may never
more be heard of.

"At the battle of Solway, in the time of Henry VIII. (1542), when the
Scotch army, commanded by Oliver Sinclair, was routed, an unfortunate
troop of horse, driven by their fears, plunged into this morass, which
instantly closed upon them. The tale was traditional, but it is now
authenticated; a man and horse, in complete armor, having been found by
peat-diggers, in the place where it was always supposed the affair had
happened. The skeleton of each was well preserved, and the different
parts of the armor easily distinguished."[1019]

The same moss, on the 16th of December, 1772, having been filled like a
great sponge with water during heavy rains, swelled to an unusual height
above the surrounding country, and then burst. The turfy covering seemed
for a time to act like the skin of a bladder retaining the fluid within,
till it forced a passage for itself, when a stream of black
half-consolidated mud began at first to creep over the plain,
resembling, in the rate of its progress, an ordinary lava-current. No
lives were lost, but the deluge totally overwhelmed some cottages, and
covered 400 acres. The highest parts of the original moss subsided to
the depth of about twenty-five feet; and the height of the moss, on the
lowest parts of the country which it invaded, was at least fifteen feet.

_Bursting of a peat-moss in Ireland._--A recent inundation in Sligo
(January, 1831), affords another example of this phenomenon. After a
sudden thaw of snow, the bog betw