1876] Visits to Cromlyn and Caragh. 261 



returning in June from his usual few days' stay at Killarney, 

 he wrote to Mr. Barrington propounding the idea. 



NAT. HIST. MUSEUM, June 2qth. 



DEAR BARRINGTON, Here I am again, safely returned from 

 Killarney, and very glad to see you, if you have time to look in. The 

 weather was very fine, too sunny for much fishing, but I got usually 

 about a dozen and a half each day that I went after trout. I did not 

 find anything worth mention in the way of plants. The Bofin paper is 

 in type, and to appear early in July so Dr. Wright tells me. The 

 Carex has not flowered, but is still barely alive. I think it must be 

 C. stellulata ; at any rate I have made no mention of it in the paper. . . . 

 Ogilby has got hold of a very rare fish, the Fox Shark,* which I hope 

 we shall be able to secure for the Museum here. I am collecting infor- 

 mation about Irish as well as British Bird Distribution, but how can one 

 obtain reliable information from all the quarters of the country ? . . . . 

 Could you manage to go with me to Louisburg and explore Clare Island 

 as soon as Kirby comes back say loth or i2th of August? It would 



be great fun Do you know, or could you get me, the address of 



the Fishing-tackle shop where Mr. gets his flies ? I want to get 

 a dozen of those black gutta-percha bodies that did so well at Luggala. 

 The same colour answered at Killarney. 



The Clare Island project, however, was postponed, and 

 little botany was done this year. On a week's sick leave, 

 in August, he discovered Nuphar intermedium (a small 

 flowered variety of the yellow water-lily) at the residence 

 of his friend Mr. F. Battersby, of Cromlyn, Westmeath, 

 Had his health permitted, he thought of going to the 

 British Association Meeting at Glasgow, but towards the 

 end of August he again fell ill, and so spent the first 

 three weeks of the summer holiday quietly in Wales with 

 a few friends. The remaining weeks were spent at Killarney 

 and Caragh. Fishing, rather than botany, occupied him 

 here, and a fragment accidentally preserved among his 

 papers describes, in part, one incident of his stay at Caragh 



It was on a bright morning towards the end of September that we 

 launched our boat on Caragh Lake. The end of the fishing season was 

 approaching, so that we were the more anxious to make the best use of 

 the few days remaining before the commencement of the close season. 

 Autumn is the most enjoyable part of the year in the South-west of 



* The specimen now in the Museum, presented by Mr. J. D. Ogilby. 



