them on tables, seats, and tree trunks in the hope of thereby 

 attracting public attention, which their abilities could not other- 

 wise secure. And now that the railway has increased the number 

 of visitors, all abuse of the valued privilege of free admission to 

 this demesne should be punished by those who can appreciate it, 

 by means more ready and effective than any contemplated by the 

 magistrates' " Summary Jurisdiction Act." After passing through 

 the demesne and the grove of pines above it, the real ascent of the 

 mountain commenced, and never did a party undertake the task 

 in better spirits or with more determined perseverance. The ladies 

 were really more a help than a hindrance, and were the first to 

 point out the real object of the frequent calls to "admire the 

 landscape," or to examine some alleged botanical variety. After a 

 scramble of two hours over boulders and heather almost as steep 

 as a haystack, and rough as artificial rockwork, the leaders of the 

 party proclaimed by a shout that the summit was reached, and in 

 twenty minutes after, the last straggler arrived, each in turn 

 calling for water, water, and satisfying their thirst from the spring- 

 well that occurs at the very top, some 2,796 feet above the sea. 



During the ascent it was interesting to mark the succession of 

 vegetation, and the order in which it occurred. Pteris aquilina 

 disappeared soon after passing out of the park. The upper limit 

 of this fern is said by botanists to mark the highest line at which 

 cultivation is practicable in these countries. This may be possible, 

 but scarcely profitable unless to a Scotchman. After the brake 

 fern ceased to appear, Blechnum boreale continued to the summit, 

 and Myrica Gale, Schcenus nigricans, and Erica Tetralix gave place 

 to Empetrum nigrum, and Vacciniutn Myrtillus, which plants, with 

 Erica cinerea, covered the heath up near to the highest point, where 

 Salix herbacea reigned supreme. The observant eye cannot fail to 

 notice on Donard a sequence of plants, each group of which has 

 well-defined limits of altitudinal range. Such zones of vegetation 

 are known to exist everywhere, and, though in our island home 

 they are not comparable in degree to what is seen in continental 

 regions, yet even here they form a marked feature of our flora. 

 Long journeys are frequently made to distant places which do not 



