Anniversary Address. 303 



leyford Hope, winding through the bowery groves of birch 

 which fringe the stream, or coming out upon the breezy open, 

 according as the path led on. Several strong moraines, or 

 boulder mounds, were either crossed or skirted, indicative of 

 glacial action in pristine periods on the sides of the hills ; 

 and various British hut-circles and tumuli appeared on the 

 adjacent moor, this being their highest position in the Lang- 

 leyford vale. Arrived at the Hope, the more numerous party 

 preferred the easier alternative, pointed out in the circular, 

 of going up the Langleyford Burn to Harthope Linn, in order 

 to see a succession of pretty waterfalls, so concealed in a 

 crevice in the porphyry that several members passed without 

 being aware of their proximity. The steep rocky banks 

 overhung with native wild-wood, were diversified with fine 

 thriving ferns arrayed in their light green tints, some of them 

 rare, as well as other upland plants now in flower; none of 

 them, however, unless perhaps the stone-bramble, particularly 

 local. Hypnum ochraceum was found in fruit ; Blasia 

 pusilla was also seen; and the rare lichen, Sticta fuliginosa, 

 for which this is the special locality. 



" Other more ardent and adventurous spirits, undeterred 

 by the misty prospect on the region above, resolved to climb 

 Cheviot itself. The undertaking for a certain distance was 

 facilitated by the track made by the sledge, a very rude 

 vehicle, used in conveying peat from the heights for the 

 shepherd's stock of winter fuel. The first indication of pro- 

 gress is the appearance of the cloud-berry, or mountain 

 bramble, locally called ' noops,' a word equivalent to ' knobs' 

 or ' knops ' ; the lowermost height of which may be roughly 

 estimated at 1800 feet. It does not fruit on this its lower 

 frontier ; but on the spongy tract on the summit, its scarlet 

 berries — they become yellow, when they ripen, — were wel- 

 come objects of attention, scattered like rare gems among the 

 sapless rein-deer lichens, the wiry bents and scant heath, and 

 the bleached or lurid bog-mosses, that form the staple pro- 

 duction of that wind-swept waste. Various halts were called, 



