1889-9°-] ^3 



of Moolieve that we have before described, and which is ground 

 smooth on every side but the south-east. The three or four 

 little lakes of these hills all lie too on the south-east side of high 

 precipices, just where in this hypothesis they ought to. They 

 are probably, like most of these mountain tarns, in part, " rock 

 basins" — that is, ground oat by glacier ice, and partly dammed 

 up by boulder clay and moraine mitter. As a relic of a later 

 phase, when the ice sheet receding left only small local glaciers, 

 are the moraines that stretch across the mouth of the Happy 

 Valley, and of the Annalong and Newcastle valleys in their 

 upper part, and many a perched boulder, some of great size, 

 tells a similar tale. Two members, with the expenditure of a 

 little trouble, got a camera to the top, and on the ascent and at 

 the summit took several views, only regretting that their stock 

 was not enough to take double the number they had material 

 for. The Mourne district is yet almost unworked by the 

 photographer, and also, with the exception of the late Dr. 

 James Moore, is almost a virgin field for the brush of the artist. 

 When the Belfast " Ramblers" are inclined to go further afield 

 than the banks of the Lagan, a noble field awaits them here. 

 Meanwhile, the botanists of the party have discovered some 

 mountain plants among the granite crags. The Cow-berry 

 (Vaccinium vitis-idcea), with its round evergreen leaves, lines 

 the crevices of the rocks, and with it the Dwarf Willow {Salix 

 herbacea), and the Crow-berry (Empetrum nigrum) ; all three 

 plants have their home among the barren rocks and wind-swept 

 summits of lofty mountains ; but with them we find some of 

 our best-known woodland plants, which are here far above their 

 usual station — the common Wood Violet ( Viola sylvatica), the 

 Lady Fern {Athyrium Filix-famina), and the Common Poly- 

 pody {Poly podium vulgar e). But the north wind now blows 

 keen, and time is flying, and a descent must with all speed be 

 made to the car, and the party are once more en route for New- 

 castle. Tea at Mr. Lawrence's, at the station, and a hasty 

 meeting for election of new members, and the appointment of a 

 delegate to the meeting of the British Association at Newcastle, 

 brought the day's work to an agreeable close. 



