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| CARRYING HOME "TURF." -The foregoing picture represents an everyday incident of rural life in the more remote parts of Ireland. The "peat bogs," or "moors," as they are called in Scotland, are peculiar formations of fibrous vegetable matter, generally of a dark brown color, but often approaching red or black. When cut with a "slane"-a kind of spade, with a sharp, upright blade on one side, which forms "the sod of turf"-thrown on the bank of the pit, or "bog hole," as it is commonly termed, and spread out to dry in long rows by the attendant women, the material, if the weather is fine and the wind high, soon becomes thoroughly dry and fit for fuel. Then it is stacked, or "clamped" in large quantities, and carted off according to the public need. This is the ordinary "turf," which is only fit for heating and cooking purposes, in a mild climate. There is also a kind called "stone turf," which is pressed hard by muscular hands, and, when throughly seasoned, makes almost as hot a fire as anthracite coal. Most of the Irish bogs are in the low country, but, occasionally, they are found in mountainous regions. The scene shows a "jaunting car" being driven over a "bog road" and a group of peasantry carrying home their "firin" from a neighboring moor. |
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