HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



6i 



in Britain, and was not the fine early morning pleasant 

 after the torrents of wet that had come down in the 

 night and now hung in jewelled drops upon the 

 heather, and sundews, while the little streams were 

 fretting themselves into foamy tears over the rocks that 

 impeded their course ? Here in Kintail the thatched 

 cottages were covered with corydalis, wliile higher 

 up the glen, in a little stream occurred a plant of new 

 aspect, which made the heart beat in quick pulsations, 

 toning down, however, when it was found to be 

 Miinuhts guttatus, possibly a relic of some old garden. 

 About five miles from Shiel House we came to the 

 keeper's lodge, last house of the glen, and here we 

 asked information as to the way to Glomak ; our map 

 in this district having quite broken down, mountains 

 being put in wrong position, some omitted, others 

 unknown inserted, roads altered, &c., so we were 

 obliged to ask our way. Doleful was the news : the 

 river was in speat, it wouldn't be safe to cross it ; the 

 way was intricate, we should not find it ; there was 

 no chance of meeting any one else to inquire ; we 

 ought to have had a guide, and so on, but the way 

 was so and so. Then on we went, feet and legs 

 soon getting soaked through in the wet, boggy or else 

 hard rocky walk till the river was reached ; here the 

 stepping-stones were under water, no boulders near 

 enough to jump to, no stick to assist, gloomy was the 

 look out ; but removing the majority of garments, and 

 gingerly stepping into the fierce cold current, clutch- 

 ing at clothes in one hand, with the other grasping 

 at boulders to avoid imitating oxyria which had been 

 washed down from the heights above, we made the 

 unpleasant passage, and were soon again plodding up 

 the glen which, like Shiel, had one side a huge slope 

 breaking into a rocky crest at top and fissures with 

 multitudinous ravines. Here was little phtenogamous 

 vegetation, but occasionally came a patch of hand- 

 some Splachnicm spharicum or the sombre Cainpylopus 

 longipilus, while Saxifraga stdlaris and Oxyria told 

 of the heights above ; on to the head of the glen, and 

 turning eastward after about three miles walking we 

 reached an elevated plateau of greensward, bounded 

 southward by Scuir na Cairan, from which a few 

 streams came sprawling down, bringing with them 

 some Hieracia most of which had been eaten off ; 

 following up one of these gullies to about 3000 feet 

 Saxifraga kypnoides, Epilobium alpinicni, Cochlearia 

 alpina, Hieracium chrysanthum, Vacciniuin icliginosiiiti, 

 Cherkria, Thalictriim alpiniim, J uncus ti-iglumis, 

 Saussurea, Carex rigida, Saxifraga oppositifolia, and 

 Silene acaulis were added to the list, and then lower 

 down in a sheltered gully a pinguicula with such 

 splendid flowers as to come near grandiflora in 

 appearance. 



Now in the valley below, a river in full floods was 

 rushing along, and a short walk brought us to the 

 crag of a wonderful gorge. A steep bank being des- 

 cended a solitary mountain ash gave a standing place 

 from whence could be obtained a full view of the Falls 



of Glomak, the highest in Britain, the river plunging 

 370 feet into the chasm below, and of this over 300 feet 

 is in sight at once, and as the river was in speat, a 

 marvellous scene presented itself, the water from the 

 great height being changed into snow-like spray, 

 which ever and anon was swept upward again by the 

 wind, or glistened into iridescence as the sun broke 

 through the clouds. The rock surrounding the fair 

 are singularly precipitous, at least 700 feet of cliff, 

 black and naked of vegetation, without those ledges 

 which give even to the gorge of Twl Dhu some 

 aspects of tenderness. The only plants noticed near 

 were Scdu/n Rhodiola, Gcrauiitm syl'jalicuni, Solidago 

 and a few Hieracia, the prevailing feature being 

 barren loneliness, the view down the gorge (in which 

 sight of the river was soon lost) towards Glen Elchaig 

 partaking of the same character ; so that, compared 

 with other falls such as Foyers, Moness, Corrj-mulzie 

 or Bruar, it yields to them in the wooded cliffs, 

 hung with ferns, mosses and lichens, which give them 

 soft beauty, yet the sterner grandeur of the black 

 mural precipices and the barrenness of its environ- 

 ments and the almost absolute loneliness and sense of 

 isolation felt by the observer, all tend to make these 

 Falls of Glomak most impressive. 



LIST OF ASSISTING NATURALISTS. 



Middlesex. 



London.— W. J. V. Vandenbergh, V.-P. and Member 

 of the Council, North Middlesex Nat. Hist Assoc, 

 26 Ingleby Road, Grove Road, Holloway, N., and 

 77 Campsbourne Road, Homsey. General Zoology'. 



Fungus {Agaricus nudus). — Will any of your 

 readers who have experimented upon this fungus kindly 

 say whether in their opinion it is an edible one or not ? 

 I am led to make this inquiry because my own 

 experience is in direct opposition to the caution 

 given in " Mushrooms and Toadstools " by Worth- 

 ington G. Smith, Esq. Far be it from me to question 

 the statements of such an authority, but I think the 

 following facts are, to those engaged in the study of 

 Fungi, of sufficient interest to be placed on record. 

 Two or three months ago, I found, and ate, as did 

 also two or three members of my family, considerable 

 quantities of this fungus. Since then I have bought 

 the above work, in which the writer cautions his 

 readers against eating it. I communicated with Mr. 

 Smith on the subject, who tells me he has " heard of 

 persons being very queer indeed after a nudus." He 

 does not, however, say if he has himself tried it. It is 

 almost needless to add that I was quite unaware of 

 any suspicion attached to it, and, as I have remarked, 

 we ate quantities of it, and we thought it very little 

 inferior to the common mushroom, the only objection 

 was, that it was a little slimy, not unlike a Boletus. — 

 jfo/m Rasor. 



