1896.1 COI.GAN. — Flora of the Ox Motmtains^ Co, Sligo. 303 



flora of the district. It enabled us, however, to safely draw 

 some conclusions as to its general character and to add some- 

 thing to the existing knowledge of the county Sligo flora. 



Before proceeding to sum up the results of our hasty survey 

 a few words may be said on the physical features of the 

 district. The Ox Mountains stretch in a roughly north-east 

 and south-west direction for twenty-five miles, from Ballyso- 

 dare in the north-east to Aclare in the extreme south-west of 

 Sligo, and have an average breadth of about eight miles. From 

 their culminating point, Knockacree, which reaches to a height 

 of 1,778 feet, six miles due south of the coast of Aughris Head, 

 a wide and featureless table-land, covered with very wet bog, 

 stretches N.E. and S.W. for a distance of some five miles, 

 maintaining a general elevation of 1,600 feet. Towards the 

 extremities the elevation becomes lower, averaging hardly 

 1,000 feet for the five miles west from Ballysodare, and about 

 1,200 feet for the eight miles N.W. from the neighbourhood of 

 Aclare. At either end the range is more broken than near the 

 middle, and on the northern slope of the central table land, as 

 under Knockacree, where the drainage of the upper bogs 

 rushing down to Though Achree has ploughed a deep gully in 

 the mountain flank, and, again, farther w^est, near lyUgdoon, 

 some bold rock faces appear which, however, nowhere deserve 

 the name of cliffs. In the south-west, where the Owenaher, 

 one of the chief aflluents of the Moy, passes through the deep 

 depression known as the Mass Valley, and at Lough Talt, where 

 the hills rise rapidly from the water's edge, the scenery 

 becomes picturesque. Elsewhere the range is monotonous. 



The great mass of the Ox Mountains is of non-calcareous 

 rock, mica-schist, quartzite, and granite, which latter, in some 

 places, as round the Cloonacool lakes, S.K- of I^ough Kasky, 

 and in the hills above Eough Talt, exhibits the characteristic 

 wavy foliations of gneiss. The limestone is confined to the lower 

 levels from about 400 feet downwards. I^akes are numerous, 

 especially towards the south-west ; but with two exceptions, 

 I^ough Talt and Lough Kasky, which somewhat exceed a mile 

 in length, they are of small size. The bog which caps the 

 central plateau as with a vast saturated sponge sends down 

 innumerable small streams 10 ihe north and south, those to the 

 north reaching Sligo Bay after a short course, those to the 



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