84 Meport of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 



Glows at her feet, and all the gloomy rocks 

 Are brightened round her." 



There were missel-thrushes at the berries October 6th. The 

 amount of fruiting Marchantia polymorpha here in the swampy 

 spots is astonishing. Lysimachia nemorum, JEpilobium palustre, 

 Hypericum quadrangulum and Carex Icevigata grow on the bog 

 edges. 



Crossing the moor from this to Shippath, marks of old culti- 

 vation still remain. The crowberry manifests a preference for 

 such spots after returning to their natural wildness. Berryhill 

 at no great distance to the north appears to have derived its 

 name from this wild fruit. A solitary basaltic green-stone 

 boulder lies on the moor mid-way, 4 feet long by 2 broad, and 

 2 thick, well rounded on the exterior. 



Shippath is on a more enlarged scale than the other deans, and 

 its scenery is grander, more varied, and more impressive. It is 

 difficult of access, and can only be partially explored, as it is for 

 the greater part composed of high cliffs with perpendicular 

 faces, and there is no passage up the centre of the two ends of 

 the wooded portion which are environed at the sides by stone 

 barriers, unless by wading up the burn, which the frequent pools 

 of water almost forbid. I am not sure that the upper end has 

 been attempted, but Mr Evans found his way with wet feet up 

 the under section. This is a dell which if people who have been 

 lost in a mist become entangled with, they find it completely im- 

 pervious. There is now a bridle road for foxhunters made across 

 the middle. It is the metropolis of the foxes of the district, which 

 can be seen basking in security on the sunny banks during the 

 day-time. Like all the adjacent ravines and grounds it swarms 

 with rabbits, so that the foxes do not require to resort to dubious 

 courses, or to travel far from home to obtain sustenance. The 

 northern side is the highest, with a cover of dwarf furze and 

 juniper, the soil being dry and unproductive. The dean edges 

 are thickets of woody scrub. Most of the wood is on the south 

 side. Birch, sallow, mountain-ash, and hazel are the main com- 

 ponents ; but there is a sprinkling of ashes, a few oaks, one or 

 two old hawthorns, a tall black-cherry very conspicuous in its 

 fiery autumnal dress, and a noble wide-branched elm in the centre 

 of the lower division. The mountain- ashes in their changeful 

 autumnal colourings help much to diversify the scene, especially 

 when they stretch their lower bent-down branches across the face 





