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BOGS AND THEIR DANGERS.
291
over it, and forms tlie Riukan Foss, the great rival of
the Voring Foss.
The Mjös Vand has a forked shape, and Holvik is at
the extremity of the farthest prong; the track marked
on the map sweeps round the nearest, but I was told that
by going to a place called Synderland, I might cross
this part of the lake in a boat, and save some miles
thereby. I made for it accordingly, steering by
compass over many miles of most detestable bog,
alarmingly soft at some parts, and ankle-deep at the best.
My boots had stout cloth tops, firmly laced up the
middle ; any sort of shoe would have been inevitably left
behind, and even a tight-fitting Wellington boot might
have been drawn off, for at every step a great
muscular effort was required to drag the foot out of its
black muddy peat encasement. I sank knee-deep
several times, and a shuddering cold sweat oozed out of
every pore on each occasion. Nothing is more horrible
to my imagination than the idea of being smothered
in a bog ; it is a nasty, dirty, disgusting, undignified,
and Quilpish death: a quicksand must be bad enough,
but that is more cleanly. I had rather be masticated
alive, feet first, by any imaginable slow-feeding wild
beast, than be smothered in a bog. I am not quite
certain whether there do exist any bogs soft and deep
enough for a man to sink into and be buried
perpendicularly ; but if such things are possible, they surely may
be found in this district. I saw several patches with
a smooth watery surface, and a decided pool-like
character. They had been pools of water, since filled up
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