Page 101 - The snake's pass

ON KNOCKNACAR. 89
surface ; or if the bank or bed of clay lay on the surface
of one shelving rock, the water would naturally drain
to the lowest point and the upper land would be shallow
in proportion."
" But," I ventured to remark, " if this be so, one
of two things must happen ; either the water would
wear away the clay so quickly, that the accumulation
would not be dangerous, or else the process would be
a very gradual one, and would not be attended with
such results as we are told of. There would be a
change in the position of the bog, but there would not
be the upheaval and complete displacement and chaos
that I have heard of, for instance, with regard to this
very bog of Knockcalltecrore. „
" Your ' if is a great peacemaker If what I have
' !
supposed were all, then the result would be as you have
said ; but there are lots of other supposes ; as yet we
have only considered one method of change. Suppose,
for instance, that the water found a natural means of
escape—as, for instance, where this very bog sends a
stream over the rocks into the Cliff Fields—it would not
attack the clay bed at all, unless under some unusual
pressure. Then suppose that when such pressure had
come the water did not rise and top the clay bed, but
that it found a small fissure part of the way down.
Suppose there were several such reservoirs as I have
mentioned—and from the formation of the ground I
think it very likely, for in several places jutting rocks
from either side come close together, and suggest a sort