"June 1, 1898.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



121 





a£N€EJ.lTERATa 



Founded in i88i by RICHARD A. PROCTOR. 



LONDON: JUNE 1, 1898. 



CONTENTS. 



The Mourne Mountains. By trEExviLLE A. J. Cole, 

 .U.K. I. A., F.G.s. {Illuxtra(ed) 



The Petroleum Industry. By G-EOEaK T. Hollowat, 

 ASSOC. B.c.s. (LOND.), F.i.c. (illustrated) 



Economic Botany. By John E. Jackson, a.l.3., etc. ... 



Weather Accounts. By Alex. B. McD.iwall, m.a. 

 (Illustrated) " 



The Prismatic Camera at the Recent Eclipse. By 



J. EVBESHED, F.E.A.S. (Plate) 



Occultation of 26 Arietis observed Photographically. 



By Edward C. Pickeeinq-. (Illustrated) 



Notices of Books 



Shoet "Notices 



Books Received 

 Letters ;— Edwin Holmes; W. F. DEXNixa ; G. Abbott, 



II.B.O.S 



Science Notes 



Africa and its Animals. By R. Ltdekker, b.a., f.r.s. ... 

 The Vinegar Fly and the Vinegar Mite. By C. Ains- 



WOKTH MiiCHELT., U.A., F.I.C. (Illustrated) 

 A Classic Legacy of Agriculture. By John Mills 

 Notes on Comets and Meteors. By W. F. Denning, 



F.E.A.S 



The Face of the Sky for June. By Heebeet Sadleh, 



P.E.A.S 



Chess Column. By C. D. Locock, b.a 



136 

 130 

 137 



139 

 140 



143 

 143 



THE MOURNE MOUNTAINS. 



By Grenatlle A. J. Cole, m.b.i.a., f.g.s., Professor of 

 Geology in the Roijal CoUer/e of Science for Ireland. 



IT is one of the many advantages of a thinly populated 

 country that its barren regions are left very much to 

 lovers of scenery. The Mourne ^fountains, though 

 situated on the easily accessible coast of the county 

 of Down, have remained but little visited, even by 

 dwellers in Ireland. Despite the admirable introductions 

 that have been made to them in recent years,'' the scientific 

 observer and the keen pedestrian need have little fear of 

 being hampered in their pursuits by the presence of the 

 purely casual tourist. 



Those, however, who may not tind it convenient to leave 

 the beaten track, can, in a few inspiring drives, complete 



* R. Lloyd Praeger, M.H.r.A., "The Mourne Mountains," Science 

 Gossip, new series. Vol. II. (1895), p. 85; and '■ G-uide to County 

 Down and the Mourne Mountains," published by the Belfast and 

 County Down Railway Company, 1898, with one hundred illustrations, 

 price Is. (Marcus Ward & Co.) 



the circuit of the Mournes, and can even cross at one point 

 from the western meadows to the sea. The character of 

 the mountain group, in all its isolated individuality, can, 

 indeed, be best grasped from a preliminary survey of its 

 spurs. From Newry, at the head of the long Carlingford 

 inlet, we climb to the upland formed by the " Caledonian " 

 granite in this district, and presently, across the Silurian 

 foot-hills, we see upon our right the grey-green ridges of 

 the Mournes. At Hilltown we meet the first road that 

 cuts into the silent area, and we gain some notion of the 

 steep-sided valleys that lie between these smooth round 

 domes. On certain of the nearer summits, little " tors " of 

 rock stand out, much as they do on Dartmoor, but on a 

 more impressive scale. Then, as we follow the steadily 

 rising road, we are cut oii' for a time from distant views ; 

 but in four miles the finest of them all bursts on us— 

 the seemingly sheer face of Slieve Meel, the grass, as it 

 were, sliding away on it and leaving the bare white rock 

 exposed ; and beyond, across a romantic bend of the valley, 

 the craggy nr.'te of Slieve Bernagh — without question the 

 noblest summit of the Mournes. 



And so down, mile after mile, under the wooded slopes 

 to Bryansford, where the corner ia turned and we see the 

 northern aspect of the highland. Slieve Commedagh and 

 Slieve Donard, with a rocky pass between them, dominate 

 the landscape here, the latter being the highest mountain 

 of them all. Its two thousand seven hundred and ninety- 

 six feet bring it, in fact, only a little short of Cader Idris. 



On the east, this compactly arranged highland falls 

 steeply to the sea, so that the summit of Slieve Donard is 

 only two miles from the actual coast. The splendid road 

 is carried, as best it may be, between the heather of the 

 moorland and the sea, and crosses at intervals the alluvial 

 fans that stream down from the eastern valleys. A pebbly 

 raised beach that runs along part of the coast also provides 

 a convenient terrace. 



At Bloody Bridge, only two miles south of Newcastle, 

 the old roadway, of bitter memory, is seen a little further 

 up the glen; and behind it, and stretching high towards the 

 notch from which the stream descends, is one of those huge 

 cones of detritus that assure one of the reahty of denudation. 

 It may have been formed, in the first instance, by a land- 

 slide ; but it no doubt was freely added to when the moun- 

 tains above were at their highest. Now the stream has 

 cut a clear section through it, down to the granite floor, 

 and grass has climbed across the slopes of Slieve Donard, 

 from which much of the material fell. The outer edge of 

 the cone has, moreover, been removed by the sea ; but in 

 its remaining mass, and the beauty of its form, it is still an 

 admirable picture of a talus-fan, such as may be seen in full 

 vitality at the foot of any ravine in Norway, Tyrol, or 

 Karinthia. 



At the tiny port of Annalong, we cross one of the larger 

 rivers of the Mournes, which rises in a superb steep-sided 

 valley under the rock-terraces of Slieve Commedagh. A 

 second large stream, the waters of which are about to be 

 stored up for Belfast, comes down out of a similar valley 

 at Kilkeel ; and soon the road turns westward, passes along 

 the beautiful sea-inlet up to Kostrevor, Warrenpoint, and 

 Narrow Water, and reaches Newry, where the fifty-mile 

 circuit is complete. 



When we examine this moimtain-mass in detail, we find 

 that we are not dealing with a range, but with a great 

 boss of granite, shaped somewhat like a dumbbell, the 

 narrow part being crossed by the road from Hilltown to 

 Kilkeel. The principal valleys have been cut far back 

 from north or south. The watershed is consequently sinu- 

 ous, between the short streams flowing to the Irish Sea 

 and the rivers that reach the Atlantic with the Bann ; 



