xxii INTRODUCTION. 
summit reaching to 2,756 feet. Scarcely a hundred years ago 
this mountain was held to be not only an extinct volcano but 
also the loftiest summit in Ireland. Still farther to the west 
between Mangerton and the gap through which the Killarney 
lakes communicate with each other, rises the beautifully 
wooded. Tore Mountain 1,764 feet in height. 
West and south-west of the Killarney Lakes rises a group of 
lofty peaks. Those first met with in a westerly direction are 
Shehy Mountain with Tomies’ two summits and the Purple 
Mountain rismg to 2,739 feet. Next to these, and only 
separated from them by the narrow Gap of Dunloe, rise the 
Macgillycuddy’s Reeks. This imposing range of mountains, 
the loftiest in Ireland, stretches from the Gap in a more or less 
westerly direction to the Glencar valley, a distance of about 
eight miles. For more than half this distance the main axis 
of the Reeks is a narrow ridge, finely serrated in parts, often 
falling abruptly on either hand and maintaining an elevation 
of close on 3,000 feet which it exceeds above Lough Cum- 
meenapeasta and again above Lough Cummeenmore. Farther 
west this ridge turns north to Carrantuohill, 3,414 feet, the 
highest point in Ireland, and then divides, the northern spur 
descending by Beenkeragh, 3,314 and Skregmore 2,790 feet, 
the southern spur by Caher 3,200 and Curraghmore 2,695 feet, 
to low level in the Glencar valley. This range presents many 
fine series of elevated cliffs facing nearly all points of the 
compass and enclosing some of the loftiest lakelets or tarns in 
Treland. 
South of the Reeks lie the Boughil ridge with Broaghna- 
binnia, a well-known truncated pyramid as seen from the 
Upper Killarney Lake, and an unnamed ridge between the 
two which reaches 2572 feet. Farther west, and separated 
from it by the Ballaghbeama Gay, rises the fine Mullaghanattin 
range, 2,539 feet at its highest point, breaking up still further 
west into a perfect jumble of peaks and precipices, a district 
still but little known botanically. Of the summits here, 
Finnavaragh and many others rise above the 2,000 feet level. 
Large areas in this range, especially to the south of Cloon 
Lough, Glencar, have been almost entirely denuded, leavin 
them a wilderness of bare sloping rocks and slabs which when 
seen in showery weather often glisten like a surface of glass. 
This little known mass of mountains continues at about the 
same elevation for many miles dividing Kenmare Bay from the 
Inny valley, until it sinks to meet the low lying Lough Currane 
at Waterville. To the north of these mountains and separated 
from them by the upper portion of the Inny valley, lie the 
