26 



LUNDY ISLAND. 



sort of grass that grows here, however, we managed 

 to make our way some distance down it. This plant 

 grows in large stools or tussocks, formed of the densely- 

 matted leaf-bases of successive seasons ; some of which 

 are eight or ten feet high, and two feet in diameter. 

 An agile person might leap from one of these to 

 another, and so traverse the valley without wetting 

 his feet. Through the gully we had a view of Gannet 

 Cove, as also of Gannet Eock, an insular mass lying 

 off one of its points ; and here we saw the first out- 

 post of the grand army of birds that we had come to 

 visit. We pushed up on the opposite side of the 

 valley, through the tall fern, which was growing ex- 

 cessively rank, reaching about as high as our heads ; 

 sat down a few moments to rest, and amused our- 

 selves by seeing which could cut the fern-stalk so as 

 to produce the most effective royal oak. Perhaps 

 some of my readers may like to amuse themselves in 

 the same manner: if you have never seen it done, 

 select a stout leaf of the common brake-fern and pull 

 it up from the roots, then with a sharp knife cut the 

 stalk across slantwise, in the black part that is ordi- 

 narily immersed in the soil, when the section of the 

 vessels will display a very pretty semblance of a well- 

 grown oak-tree, either tall or widely-spreading, ac- 

 cording to the direction in which you make the cut. 



In the vicinity we found some interesting plants. 

 The beautiful blue skull-cap was growing in the 

 streamlet that trickled into the gully: higher up the 

 pretty little yellow pimpernel, or wood loosestrife, was 



