232 The Irish Naturalist October, 



AMONG THE FERMANAGH HILLS. 



BY R. LI<OYD PRAKGER, B.A., M.R.I.A. 



This is the record of a wet week— or five days, to be exact. 

 To have three and a half da3^s of rain during that period is 

 siirel}^ a liberal allowance. The only thing to do was not to 

 mind it ; so I put in an average of twelve hours' field-work 

 each day. and every evening returned, dripping but happy. 

 The district which I wished to explore was that which lies 

 south of the western part of Lower Lough Erne. This area, 

 along with the hilly country stretching southward to beyond 

 Cuilcagh, had already been examined and reported on by 

 S. A. Stewart^ ; but the finding, within the last year or two^ 

 by an active group of local botanists — Messrs. West, Tetley, 

 Abraham, and M'Cullagh— of such good plants as Saxifraga 

 aizoides, Pyrola sccunda, and Trichomanes radicaris, pointed to 

 enticing possibilities ; an impression not diminished by a visit 

 to the district one day in the July of last year. Accordingly, 

 the services of that most helpful of friends, Mr. Thomas 

 Plunkett, M.R.I.A., were requisitioned, and on the evening of 

 July 2 he drove me down twelve miles from Enniskillen, and 

 duly installed me in a comfortable farm-house overlooking 

 Lough Erne near Church Hill. 



The physiography of this district is remarkable. Three 

 different kinds of rock, all laid down during Carboniferous 

 times, produce each its own type of scenery, soil, and vegeta- 

 tion. Massive limestones form the huge grey cliff- ranges of 

 Poulaphuca (or Barr of Whealt) and the grand semicircular 

 wall of Knockmore ; and in the Carrick district rise in steep 

 knobby hills, bright green with short grass, with the grey 

 rock showing everywhere between. The softer shales weather 

 into smooth rounded outlines, with the streams sunk down in 

 wooded glens. Heavy clay lands prevail here, with pasture 

 or meadow full of rushes and horsetails. Lastly, the Yore- 

 dale Sandstones occupy the higher grounds, clothed with 



^ Report on the Botany of the Mountainous portion of Co. Fermanagh 

 to the west of Lough Erne, and the adjoining district of Co. Cavan, 

 Proc. R.I.Acad. (2), vol. II., (Science), 531-544. 1882. 



