234 Alexander Goodman More. [1870 



should retain his present appointment in the Museum of the Royal 

 Dublin Society, with special leave to undertake the exploration of the 

 Irish Flora, under the auspices of the Society, with a moderate allow- 

 ance for travelling expenses. 



Mr. More would of course send in from time to time a detailed 

 Report of his observations, in such a form as might be suitable for 

 publication in the Society's " Proceedings." 



Though botany would be the first object, Mr. More would be willing 

 to collect zoological specimens at the same time, and by this means 

 the Society would acquire a large number of specimens suitable for 

 exchange, as well as complete the series in the Museum. 



Nothing came of this proposal, and the year 1870 

 passed by with peculiarly little of incident. A few botani- 

 zing excursions one to Wicklow, at Easter, in company 

 with Mr.W. Thistleton Dyer, and another to the summit of 

 Lugnaquilla, on the 2nd of May broke the monotony of 

 his indoor life in the Museum. In September a holiday 

 tour in Kerry and North Wales was also largely devoted 

 to botany, and especially to noting the altitudes attained 

 by plants on the mountains of those regions, as calculated 

 from the aneroid. The ascent of Snowdon for this purpose 

 on September 3oth afforded him the rare pleasure of seeing 

 a pair of Golden Eagles, one of which, as he records in 

 the " Zoologist," he u watched for more than an hour, 

 circling and soaring round the precipitous rocks of Glyder 

 Vawr." He spent Christmas with his family at Park Villa, 

 Ryde ; and before returning to Ireland visited London for 

 a few days' ornithological work, reporting progress in the 

 following letter to his " Chief" in Dublin : 



January $th, 1871. 



DEAR DOCTOR CARTE, I came up to London on Monday, and 

 have been very busy since. I have been twice to the Zoological Society, 

 and spent nearly the whole day yesterday in examining the unnamed 

 birds with Jules Verreaux, who, being excluded from Paris, is now 

 working in London. He very kindly assisted me, and has labelled the 

 greater part of them. Another day's work will finish the whole lot. . . . 

 Yesterday I saw Professor Newton, and I hope that he will be able to 

 help you in the matter of the Dodo bones. It is quite hopeless to get a 

 skull, but there is a good cast of it to be obtained from Copenhagen, 

 and Newton can supply at any rate some of the missing vertebrae. 

 To-day I am going to take your letter to Mr. Bartlett at the Gardens, 

 and in the evening I am to meet Mr. Sharpe, and look at some birds. 



