In
some countries, you can actually tour a bog. Ireland is an
especially good place to go for such a visit. At the Blackwater
Bog near Shannonbridge, owned by the Bord na Móna, you can take
a train ride through the bog. The visit lasts about an hour and
includes a stop in the middle of the bog. There, you can see how
peat is cut and even try to slice it yourself.
Of
course, the Blackwater Bog is in the business of making money.
It supplies milled peat to an electric company, which burns the
peat (about a million tons of it each year) to produce
electricity. Peat is cut by large machines, which means that
humans aren't going to spot any bodies or objects (that may have
been buried in the bog thousands of years ago) until they are
chopped to pieces and traveling on a conveyor belt.
Another
good place to learn about bogs is the Moor and Fen Museum (Moor-
und Fehnmuseum) in Elisabethfehn, Germany. This special museum
displays tools and machines that peat cutters have used. It also
displays different types of peat, plants, and animals found in
bogs. A large outdoor section provides a glimpse of an
artificial bog and reconstructions of some bog trackways.
