HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP, 



35 



hei-e welcomed with avidity, gloating upon Lychnis 

 Flos-ciuidi, and Galium Aparinc or shouting with glee 

 at Sonchus asper and Arctium minus '. Nearly eighty 

 miles had been walked in West Ross before Urtica 

 dioica was seen, and then only on what remained of 

 some Highland shieling, now depopulated and dis- 

 mantled. Anagallis tenella was never seen at all, 

 -although its congeners ringuiciila Lusitanica, Molinia, 

 Droscra Auglica, 7-otundi/oIia, z.vA Rhynchospora alba, 

 were frequently found. 



From Strome we walked to Loch Alsh, and after 

 breasting the first hill, we again were reminded of 

 Connemara. It is true here were no beautiful bells 

 of Dabeocia to gladden the eye, nor could Erio- 

 caulon be found in any of the lakes ; but from the 

 black peaty soil, if soil the wet, treacherous bog 

 could be called, with its profuse growth of sombre (I 

 refer to the general effect of colour) Erica Tetralix, 

 bog-myrtle, Droscra, Molinia, cotton-grass and 

 rushes, and in the squalid poverty of too many of its 

 ■cottages, in the damp, relaxing atmosphere, and its 

 " contiguity to a melancholy ocean," there was a great 

 similarity to the West Irish coast. Like also were 

 the frequent inlets of the sea into the coast line ; but 

 in Ireland surely no mountains rise up in such grand 

 outlines as these hills of Kintail, which are now 

 coming into view, or those to the west, those spiky 

 Cuchullins of Skye. Between Loch Alsh and Loch 

 Duich occurred some interesting ground, and also 

 a heavy shower, which in Ireland would be called 

 one of St. Patrick's blessings, but was here rather 

 •attributed to some malevolent agency. Yet there is 

 one advantage even in such a shower, that is, when 

 you are quite wet through, you hesitate less about 

 wading knee-deep in such a swampy place as this 

 after Sparganium. minimum, Utricularia intermedia, 

 CEnanthe crocata, Farnassia, Comarum, Carex ciirta, 

 and Pcdicnlaris palustris ; and then there is some 

 consolation when you get on the hard road again, 

 and the clouds have gone past, now kissing the 

 peaks of Ben Attow and Scuir Ouran, those guardian 

 monarchs of Kintail and Glen Shiel, that every step 

 you take brings you nearer and drier to them. At 

 Dornie a little ferry-boat takes one across the lovely 

 Loch Duich, passes near Ellandonan Castle to the 

 south side of the Loch : here in a garden Lamium 

 purpureum greeted us, the second specimen seen north 

 of the Caledonian ; album had not been seen since 

 Blair Athol ; in the six or seven miles walk to Shiel 

 House by the Loch, Petasites vulgaris, Scirpus 

 sylvaticus, Armeria, Bartsia odontites, and a single 

 plant of Ckczrophyllum temulum — the sixth and last 

 Umbellifera — was noted. Corydalis claviculata grew 

 on some thatched roofs near and on the slopes of 

 Mam Ratachan at some considerable elevation, 

 ■Oxyria, and Botrychium Lunaria were gathered ; 

 Saxifraga aizoidcs as elsewhere in Ross from the sea- 

 level upwards being abundant. 



{To be continued.^ 



NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 

 JERSEY. 



By Edward Lovett. 



[Continued JroTti jpage 271.] 



Later Geology. 



BEFORE leaving the subject of the Geology of 

 Jersey, there are two important branches of 

 what we may consider later geology, which claim 

 our attention. One of these is the presence in Jersey 

 of geological material foreign to the locality, and the 

 other is the existence of implements of various pre- 

 historic periods which have from time to time been 

 found in the island. 



As regards the former, we allude to the presence 

 of considerable quantities of flints which occur on 

 the shores of many of the bays, particularly those of 

 St. Ouen and Grouville. Now, as we have pointed 

 out in a former paper, Jersey is composed of syenites, 

 diorites, clayslate, &c., and the presence of chalk 

 flints in such a locality is of itself sufficient to cause 

 a certain amount of interest as to their origin, and 

 we believe that some rather elaborate theories have 

 been at times entertained regarding them ; but we 

 shall endeavour to point out that it is simply one of 

 those instances in which the "resources of civilisa- 

 tion" have been the cause of a somewhat remarkable 

 rult, when viewed from a naturales standpoint. 



In almost all parts of the world, near ports, it 

 would be possible to see evidence of this, in the 

 fragments of geological material foreign to the 

 locality that strew the shores, and on a visit to 

 Hastings some time since the writer recorded thirteeia 

 varieties of rocks and minerals belonging to far- 

 removed strata which were lying exposed at low tide 

 on one of the wildest and least frequented parts of 

 the coast, near Fairlight. Without enumerating 

 many other similar instances, it may perhaps be ot 

 interest to give a few statistics connected with a port 

 whose imports largely exceed its exports, and where, 

 in consequence, an enormous amount of the local rock 

 is taken away as ballast to be deposited in places to 

 which it bears no affinity whatever, indeed probably 

 giving rise in some cases to problematical theories as 

 to its origin. 



The average monthy number of vessels (in the year 

 iSSo) leaving the port of Rio de Janeiro in ballast 

 was thirty-nine, or four hundred and seventy for the 

 year. The amount of ballast required of course 

 varies considerably, according to the tonnage of the 

 ship, her build, where she is bound for and a variety 

 of other causes ; but the average proportion is about 

 a fifth of the tonnage, so that a ship of a thousand 

 tons would take about two hundred to two hundred 

 and fifty tons of ballast. A large business is done in 

 this ballast, which consists of a bluish syenite, of 

 which the hills round Rio are composed. From 



