BY THE MEDITERRANEAN. 47 



aldi, and this in one place skirts the brink of a precipice. Like 

 other similar water-courses and aqueducts about Mentone it is 

 probably of some antiquity. Turning down the rocks I found 

 several fine shrubs of Coroiiilla emerus in full flower, and one 

 flower of Campanula macrorhiza. In the stream grew a kind 

 of JVitella, while just below were thick festoons of maiden-hair 

 fern {Adta?itiim capilliis veneris)^ their large pinnae in many cases 

 more or less deeply cleft. A path, about a foot wide, goes along 

 outside the little stream, but it was too muddy and slippery to 

 allow of venturing far round the cliff. 



Among the olives higher up I found dry seed vessels of Nigella 

 damasccena, and some unusually fine plants of the " rusty-back " 

 (Ceierach officviarum) in the walls, having larger fronds than some 

 of the finest Somersetshire specimens. Above the village of 

 Ciotti, and near the church, the nummulitic limestone crops up. 

 The paths are in some places thickly strewn with loose nummulites 

 of all sizes, ranging from about one-eighth of an inch in diameter 

 to the size of a penny. It is also possible to find specimens split 

 across, and showing the internal structure of the cells very well, 

 though these are rare. Most of the nummulites are too brittle to 

 allow of good sections being made for the microscope, and an 

 examination of the broken fragments resulting from an attempt to 

 grind down a thin section, suggests that they have undergone con- 

 siderable changes in the course of fossilisation. Traces of coral 

 structure may also be found. 



The view from the village church extends over towards 

 Monaco, to the Esterels beyond Cannes, and in the opposite 

 direction down a wild valley, with La Mortola far below. Here 

 for a short time I noticed a very curious effect. The sky was 

 grey and cloudy, but an opening in the clouds allowed a beam of 

 sunlight to fall on the sea behind Cap Martin, forming a bright 

 round patch, which had a very weird appearance. From this point 

 I returned down the hillside, and found the path in places entirely 

 paved with nummulites, of sizes varying from that of a shilling to 

 a penny. 



My next walk was to Ste. Agnese, for which I took the whole 

 day. The usual way ascends the ridge on the left side of the 

 Cabrolles or Boirie valley, by the right of a small branch valley, 



