250 . Alexander Goodman More. [i874 



1879. The heath, what ever may be the facts of its history, 

 could not now be found anywhere in Ireland, and was 

 excluded from the Irish plants in the next edition (1881) 

 of Professor Babington's Manual. Besides Craigga-more 

 and Ballinaboy, a third Irish locality had once been 

 assigned to it ; but to the story of its discovery there 

 certain details had afterwards been added, which made the 

 acceptance of the record impossible. Of all plants, Erica 

 ciliaris would perhaps be, to Irish botanists, the most 

 appropriate emblem of caution. 



If Craigga-more had its mystery, so had Carig-a-lau- 

 chaun. Among the " quadrupedal questions " talked over 

 with Bell in November, 1855, was one which had since 

 become as chronic as that relating to Erica ciliaris. This 

 was the question of the occurrence, on the Irish coast, of 

 Phoca grcenlandica, the Harp or Greenland Seal. 



On September 25th, 1855, Mr. Henry Evans, then at 

 Roundstone, had vented in a letter to More his disgust at 

 the loss of a strangely marked seal, shot on a rock " at a. 

 place called Corrie-ga-la-hon as far as can be expressed by 

 an English pen," which, though badly wounded, had 

 contrived to struggle into the water and disappear. On 

 reading the description of this animal, " like a white cow 

 spotted with large patches of black," More had forwarded 

 a drawing and description of the harp seal to his corre- 

 spondent. " Truly (ran the reply) you are a great artist. 

 The instant your picture met my eye, I mentally exclaimed, 

 * That is my fellow'/' And Mr. Evans never wavered from 

 the faith that " his fellow" was indeed a harp seal. 



At that time the harp seal, now admitted to be a 

 visitor though a very rare one to the English and Scot- 

 tish coasts, was scarcely accorded a place among British 

 seals at all. Two seals killed in the Severn in 1836 liad 

 been identified by Bell as harps, but his opinion was not 

 universally subscribed to ; and these appear to have been 

 so far the only recorded instances. So, if Mr. Evans was 

 right, he could scarcely have got (or lost) a greater prize. 



But anxiously as the resurgence of its carcase was 

 awaited, "the ever-to-be-lamented lost harp" remained in 

 the depths of the sea. The species therefore could not be 



