122 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Lough Ban and the DeviVs Glen. 



The village of Roundwood lies between the two, and is a 

 convenient point from which to investigate the district. 

 Lough Dan is the largest of the Wicklow lakes, though not 

 much more than a mountain tarn, its length being only a 

 mile and three-quarters by an average width of half a mile : 

 at its southern end, near Roundwood, there are extensive 

 bogs and copses : from what I have seen of these I feel sure 

 they would repay further examination. The following are 

 the most notable species which have been observed in this 

 locality : — Sesia bombyliformis, Ptilodontis palpina, Eury- 

 mene dolabraria, Dasydia obfuscata, Agrotis agathina, Ho- 

 porina croceago, Dasycampa rubiginea, Epunda lutulenta, 

 Hadena satura and suasa, Calocampa vetusta and exoleta. 

 The river Vartry runs through the Devil's Glen, forming a 

 fine waterfall at its head. 



Looking up at the shattered crags of the ravine (I don't 

 know how many hundred feet in height), the geological 

 theory, that the little stream at the bottom has in the course 

 of ages worn out the great chasm, seems scarcely more 

 credible than the popular story which says it was formed at 

 a blow by man's spiritual enemy. It is the universal ten- 

 dency of the Irish peasant to attribute everything wild and 

 wonderful to supernatural agency, and the devil appears (for- 

 merly at all events) to have a very busy time of it in Ireland : 

 thus the Scalp near Dublin was kicked through the mountain 

 by the devil, when, on one occasion, driving a flock of sheep 

 from Wicklow to Dublin, he found his way impeded by 

 a steep and rugged hill ; and the Rock of Cashel is said to 

 be a niouthful — bitten by the same personage — out of a neigh- 

 bouring mountain, and dropped on the plain when found 

 indigestible : a huge gap in the crest of the Devil's-bit 

 Mountain, visible for miles around, illustrates and proves the 

 legend ! The Irish peasant lives in an atmosphere of 

 romance and supernaturalism, which has faded out of (if it 

 ever existed in) the prosaic English mind. For him the age 

 ^ of miracles has not passed, — his church so teaches, — and he 

 accepts with alike simple faith the wild legends — 



That a wolf conversed with St. Patrick, 



That he produced fire from ice, 



