CHAPTER XXXIV 



EXCURSIONS AND EXAMINATIONS 



While endeavouring to give an account of all matters which 

 occupied or interested me during the latter half of my life, I 

 somewhat hastily concluded my MS. and sent it to press 

 without any reference to two matters which were of some im- 

 portance to myself, and one of them of some general interest. 

 These are the various holiday excursions I took with my 

 father-in-law, Mr. William Mitten, whose deep enthusiasm 

 for nature and extensive knowledge of plants in general, and 

 mosses in particular, rendered his companionship very con- 

 genial to me ; and my work as an Assistant Examiner in 

 Physical Geography and Physiography, which occupied me for 

 three weeks or more every summer, almost continually for 

 twenty-seven years. In order to make this record of my life 

 more complete, I have added a supplementary chapter devoted 

 to these two subjects. 



My first excursion with Mr. Mitten was in August, 1867, 

 to North Wales, his first visit to that beautiful district. We 

 stayed a few days at Corwen, and our first walk on Sunday 

 morning was along the road to the west up the valley of the 

 Alwen. In about five miles we reached Pont-y-glyn, where a 

 farm-road crossed a very deep ravine. This we descended 

 and found the bottom full of curious hollows, with vertical 

 rocks damp or dripping, overshadowed by trees and shrubs. 

 Here the yellow Welsh poppy grew luxuriantly, as well as 

 the globe-flowers and the subalpine Rubus sax at His. But 

 what delighted Mr. Mitten on this his first walk in Wales 

 was the abundance of mosses and hepaticse, and for a full 

 hour he explored every nook and cranny, and every few 



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