550 NOTES ON IRISH NATURAL HISTORY. 



churches, and where indeed they can scarcely be coaxed to 

 grow at all, has never yet been satisfactorily explained. A 

 favourite theory on this subject is, that in time of war the fo- 

 rests were cleared, lest they should form a shelter in cases of 

 pursuit : a second theory is, that copper and lead ore were 

 conveyed from Cornwall and Wales to the coast of Ireland, 

 in order to be smelted, and that whole forests were levelled 

 for the supply of fuel. The fragments of trees remaining ap- 

 pear to be preserved by the bog, and to have suffered little or 

 nothing from the action of moisture. The recent timber must 

 not be confounded with the trunks often found still lower in 

 the bog, and which are fairly entitled to rank as bog fossils, 

 being evidently coeval with the bones of the extinct Irish 

 elks and cattle. The more recent timber is mostly oak and 

 Scotch fir. 



The north-western extremity of the county Donegal is wild, 

 grand, and mountainous ; the summits are very lofty, white, 

 and perfectly without vegetation. Having selected Arrigal 

 as the highest peak, I made the ascent, which is by no means 

 difficult, a good road having been cut along its shoulder, and 

 passing within a thousand perpendicular feet of its summit. 

 The summit is a sharp crescent-shaped ridge ; the descent 

 on the inside of the crescent is very precipitous and remarka- 

 bly barren : the form of the mountain is what is usually termed 

 volcanic, and deep within the vast excavation which may be 

 regarded as analogous to a crater, is a still lake. The view 

 is very fine ; the lakes, mountain -peaks, sea-bays and islands 

 being almost innumerable. The base of the mountains of 

 this district is boggy and very rough, higher up is a belt of 

 heath, and above this is the region of bare stone. 



After sleeping in a hut at the foot of Arrigal I turned 

 southward, crossing the Glendoan mountains, and so reached 

 Docharty bridge. The Glendoan chain is of less height, and 

 the summits more rounded : you may often walk forty or fifty 

 yards on an unbroken slab of stone, perfectly bare, and 

 bleached by the action of wind and rain. On reaching the 

 lower country about Docharty Bridge, Osmunda regalis 

 appears in profusion, sometimes fringing the margin of the 

 streams like a continuous hedge, sometimes rising from the 

 bog in large isolated bushes. I could not but contrast the 

 fem productions of this wild county with those of Argyle- 

 shire and Caernarvonshire, which in their desolate mountain- 

 ous character are somewhat similar. Cryptogramma crispa is 

 nowhere to be seen ; of Polypodium Phegopteris and Dryop- 

 teris I did not find a single frond ; and of Aspidium Oreop- 

 teris, the most common fern of the Scotch and Welch moun- 



