HAMILTON SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION. 103 



what could be the reason of this (io ns) unusual appearance, our 

 curiosit}' was gratified during this country walk l)}- finding the 

 color occasioned by the ])reva]ence of a single petal red poppy, 

 which grows in the Yorkshire district as a weed and evidently 

 difficult of extermination by the farmer. 



On our trip through Somersetshire, another magnificent view 

 opened up to us while crossing the Mendip Hills. When within 

 two miles of the city of Wells a turn in the road removed a veil of 

 rock and woodland exposing what was, in every sense of the term, 

 a bird's ej'e, if not a balloon view of the country on a lower level. 

 For many miles to the east, south and south-west lay a com- 

 parativel}^ level plain, spread out like a map with farms, fields, 

 hedges, stretches of woodland, with towns and villages scattered 

 about as far as the eye could reach, the ever varying shades of 

 green, yellow and brown, combining to make a kaleidoscopic picture 

 seemingly without a parallel. 



But, again. In the western end of the range of Mendip Hills 

 are elevations probabh' 1500 to 2000 feet above sea level, from 

 which we obtained other superb views. With a friend, we struck 

 out from Cheddar to visit " Black Down," said to be the highest 

 point of the Mendips, and after a wear\ ing tramp of six or seven 

 miles, up hill all the way, reached the summit, the last mile or .so 

 walking through heather to our knees in depth, and although the 

 wind blew a gale and the air chilly, the atmosphere was quite clear 

 and the view unobstructed from every point of the compass except 

 south-east. Twenty miles away to the north-east Brandon Hill 

 and Bristol could be distinctly seen, to the north the city of New- 

 port in Monmouth, to the north-west beyond Bristol Channel the 

 smoking chimneys of Cardiff in Wales, to the west the fashionable 

 watering place of Weston Super Mare, and to the south, fifteen 

 miles off, the Mount and Glastonbury Tor. 



While on this bleak, high ground, where no one lives, we 

 noticed several strange looking mounds, and upon going to the top 

 of them, ten or fifteen feet above the general surface, found a 

 cavity in each, in the centre of which had been dug a small pit 

 which was covered by a large flat stone, or several stones. Uncover- 



