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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



in Colgan's list Kilnamanach, or the Church of the 

 Monks, dedicated to St. Caradoc Garbh (the rough). 

 Farther westward, in the neighbourhood of the 

 village called Cowrugh, are various ruins, about 

 which very little is known. One church has the 

 remarkable and poetical name of Teampull nag 

 ceatharaluinn, or the " Church of the Eour Beautiful 

 Ones "; near it is their grave, and a well dedicated 

 to them. We may also call attention to two 

 bullans, two liagan, several cloghans, a cashel, a 

 laura ; also the village of Ballynasean, previously 

 described, as it is supposed to be in part pre- 

 Christian. 



Kilmurvy, farther west, signifies " the church on 

 the sand." Such a church does not now exist, if it 

 is not buried. At or near the village are Teampull- 

 mpcduagh; Teampullnaneeve or Teampullbeag, as it 

 is known by both names ; and a third, the name of 

 which is forgotten ; a holy well, a tall stone cross, 

 and the site of a fifteenth-century monastery, once 

 famous as a seat of learning. The first of these 

 churches lies inside a cyclopean fort or cashel. 



Farther north-west, near the north shore of the 

 island, is the village of Onaght, but known to and 

 called by the Aranites, as Bally-na-seacht-teampull, 

 or the village of the seven churches. Here there are 

 now only two churches, Teampullanphoill, or the 

 church of the hole, and Teampullbrecan ; but there 

 are the sites of numerous buildings, some of which 

 may be the remains of the churches after which the 

 place is called. Teampullbrecan was called after 

 the founder of the settlement, and his grove is 

 shown, marked by a cross cut in a flag. There are 

 also two elaborately carved stone crosses that have 

 been broken up ; the pieces, however, some years 

 ago were collected by Sir W. Wilde and S. Ferguson, 

 M.R.I.A., and it is to be hoped by this time they 

 are restored as far as practicable. Near the church is 

 a holy well ; also a labba, the latter said to cure 

 sterility in the human race. 



As a conclusion to this brief sketch of the anti- 

 quities of Aran, attention may be drawn to the rich 

 field of ancient lore which lies here unworked. There 

 is the limestone cave on the middle island, which 

 probably contains relics of the pre-historic man ; 

 the buried habitations and other structures ; the 

 dirt-heaps or kitchen middens at the Pagan and 

 ancient Christian habitations ; also the artificial 

 mounds, about which nothing is known, which may 

 be either cnocans or tuiams. 



G. H. Kinahan. 



" The eggs of the Garden Slug (A. horlensis) are 

 phosphorescent for about a fortnight after they have 

 been deposited, and may be seen in the evening 

 on moist hedge-banks, giving out a pale light."— 

 Harting's Rambles in Search of Shells. 



MICROSCOPY. 



Useful Slides.— Like, I dare say, many of the 

 younger readers of Science-Gossip, and students of 

 microscopy, 1 have to exercise considerable economy, 

 and mount my own objects ; naturally I am desirous 

 of stocking my cabinet with really useful and in- 

 structive slides, and, as the winter season approaches, 

 and students have more leisure at their disposal, I 

 venture to take up a little of your room, and make 

 an appeal to your readers for assistance, trusting 

 that out of their experience they may be able to 

 advise and instruct not only myself, but others who 

 likewise are young students in this absorbing pursuit. 

 My first difficulty is with whole insects, which are 

 so necessary to study. With some specimens from 

 the Coleoptera, the Diptera, and Hymenoptera, I 

 think I may say I have been fairly successful ; but 

 with many specimens from the last-named two orders 

 I have failed, the delicacy of the wings, and the 

 extreme hardness of the chitine of the head and 

 thorax, being the stumbling-blocks in my progress : 

 thus, long before the thorax is sufficiently soft to 

 admit of flattening out, the wings have been acted 

 upon so strongly by the liquor potassse, that the two 

 membranes separate, aud tear under the most delicate 

 manipulation which I can bring to bear upon them. 

 Doubtless many of your readers have encountered 

 and triumphed over this difficulty ; and I trust that 

 they will favour me with full particulars of their 

 method. Perhaps because I am a very young student 

 I sympathize strongly with those microscopists who 

 go in for pretty objects, even though, as in the case 

 of many seeds and diatoms, no real knowledge can 

 be obtained from such objects. We see so many 

 things in the moral world made ugly and distorted 

 by crime and folly ; we see so much of misuse in the 

 natural world, resulting in that which is offensive to 

 the eye and painful to the mind, that we may surely 

 be allowed the luxury of observing that which is 

 pleasing in art and nature. Though we concede so 

 much, it is undeniable that objects must be beautiful 

 to the mind as well as to the eye, and to be this 

 their structure and also their adaptability to the 

 place in nature which they fill, must be clearly 

 manifested, and therefore the cabinet of every 

 microscopist should contain numerous slides of sec- 

 tions aud delicate dissectionsof entomological objects. 

 I have long desired to possess slides of antennse 

 which would clearly show the nerves, aud have tried 

 (once only) the bleaching preparation recommended 

 by Dr. Hicks (see the article in the February number 

 of Science-Gossip for 1874), but without the least 

 result as regarded the manifestation of the nerves. 

 Have any of the readers of Science-Gossip made 

 the experiment, and with what result? Many 

 learned writers have spoken of these nerves as 

 objects easily observable in well prepared antennae 



