34 WANDERINGS AND PONDERINGS 



dogs, the cynopliobist before described, the name of the other 

 appears in your Magazine, and I do not care to repeat it here — 

 I will call him the grouse-shooter. The high ridges of the 

 Black Mountain, more especially those which stretch out 

 like promontories towards the town of Hay, are in a state 

 of perpetual moisture. Thousands of little ponds, or maun- 

 pits, varying from five to thirty yards in circumference, are 

 scattered over the surface of the ground. The water is per- 

 fectly clear ; but being, I suppose, strongly impregnated with 

 iron, it stains every thing immersed in it with a bright rust- 

 coloured tint. Each pond has generally six to eighteen 

 inches of water, and three to five feet of the blackest mud. 

 I took Colymbetes collaris in great abundance in these ponds. 

 It was very pretty to watch them paddling about on the mud, 

 at the bottom of the water, and rising occasionally to the 

 surface to renew their bubble of air. So luxuriant has been 

 the growth of the heath, Calluna vulgaris more especially, 

 that the masses of it not unfrequently completely met over 

 those little pools, hiding them from the sight; and in pur- 

 suing the rapid bees, (Bombi,) it was by no means uncommon 

 for one or the other of us suddenly to disappear in one of the 

 pitfalls ; and in answer to the halloos of his comrades, for — 



" Though lost to sight, to memory dear,'' 



he would slowly emerge, dripping with wet, and plastered with 

 mud. 



We took little in the way of entomological rarities, with the 

 exception of the Bombus above-mentioned, and a single speci- 

 men of Hadena glauca : we found a very large female of the 

 Emperor moth, which I mention, as proving its being an inha- 

 bitant of these high grounds. The red grouse is abundant on 

 this mountain, and is carefully preserved; they rise with a 

 strong and rapid whirr, stretch out the neck to an extreme 

 length, and almost invariably utter their peculiar call when on 

 the wing. After traversing the mountain four hours, in a 

 somewhat southerly direction, we arrived at a rude hut, built 

 of rough stout stones, piled together in a most careless manner. 

 I believe this was formerly used as a resting-place by the grouse 

 shooters, or a refuge for them in storms, but it is now too 

 ruinous to shelter any human being. Just below this hut rises 

 a stream of the most delicious water, as clear as crystal ; and 



