152 STUDIES OF NATURE 



waterfall which is on the hill- side, and yet 

 close by the sea. The day's rain had filled it. 

 It is only some six or eight feet broad, but the 

 falls of Tempe could not have been lovelier. It 

 runs over a sloping slab of grey rock and then 

 tumbles into a pool. On each side grows a 

 white-stemmed mountain ash. These meet 

 above, and from them depend the sprays of a 

 honeysuckle ten feet in length, which sway 

 backwards and forwards in the wind, as if they 

 were toying with the waterfall, their playfellow. 

 A few yards downward and this fall reaches the 

 sea ; a few yards upward and over the fern- 

 covered shoulder of the hill appears the purple 

 peak of Cioch-na-h'oighe. In this sylvan nook 

 I have spent many musing hours ; and no 

 wonder, for here in one tiny plot the mountain 

 and the sea, the woodland and the waterfall, 

 unite their varied charms. 



