38 



the choicest productions of art, and over the most brilliant 

 throngs of Ireland's beauties and her hospitably enter- 

 tained visiters — was here degraded to the base pm-pose 

 of protecting a dunghill. Our morning's excursion had 

 lasted three hours, and I am satisfied that they were 

 neither idly nor uselessly spent. We had seen a phe- 

 nomenon of vegetation in the Aphanizomenon, most stu- 

 pendous in its details ; one single species had met our 

 eyes in such inconceivable numbers, that it is not extra- 

 vagant to assume that the individuals in the space we 

 examined, far exceeded in number all the phenogamous 

 plants of the world ! Besides which we had familiarised 

 ourselves Avith the ordinary aspects of Fredericella Sul- 

 tana, and seen its habitats, and thus acquired an interest 

 in it and all its beautiful congeners. This, in addition to 

 the pleasures of intellectual society, was no mean acquisi- 

 tion for three hours. If the rest of our lives had been 

 similarly spent, we should all have been Aviser, if not 

 better men. 



Having paid attention to ourselves — a duty incumbent 

 upon all field naturalists — and being thoroughly invigo- 

 rated we proceeded to the Kingstown and Dublin Railway 

 Station, and joined a large party, consisting of nearly 

 fifty, tmder the du-ection of Professor J. B. Jukes, the 

 director of the geological survey of Ireland. We pro- 

 ceeded by train to the station of Killiney, where Ave left 

 the carriages and examined the section formed by the 

 raihvay cutting, which makes a complete escarpment of 

 a considerable portion of the hill continuous Avith the face 

 of the cliffs. The railway, I should suppose, is fully 

 two hundred feet above the shore, and abundant examples 

 may be seen of protruded granite and granite A^eins, this 

 rock being here always in contact with lower Silurian 

 slates. The railway continues on to Bray, and passes 

 in its course through the bluff" called Bray-head. The 



