i9<^5- Pkakc;kr.— 77/d' Flo}a of f/ie Mullet and Ini^hJaa. 237 



Dortliern hill-bogs and the sands and tillage which extend 

 southward. The rare little Lcntunctilns iuhii7tms-sN2i'&{x^i\\\^\\\\y 

 seen, and often rewarded a search among Wiq Radiola that was 

 so constant a feature of the road edges. Anthemis nobilis 

 occupied its usual habitat on sand}^ road edges in the north. 

 Scduvi anglicu7}i characterized dry peat fences, like Potentilla 

 proaivibeiis, while kS. acre was confined to sea sands. In the 

 shelter of the rude fences, two western ferns, Osmunda and 

 Lastrea cEinula, were conspicuous. The viviparous form of 

 Feshica ovina, usually found on mountains, occurred on dry 

 heath near sea-level at the extreme south of the Mullet. 



Inishkea. 



Inishkea consists of two islands, North and South, separated 

 by a very narrow channel. Each is of irregular shape ; the 

 north island has an area of 464 acres, the south of 344 acres. 

 They lie off the Mullet at a distance of tw^o to three miles. 

 Their position, rising as they do from the open Atlantic, is 

 exposed to a desperate degree, and they are absolutely bare 

 and wind-swept— in part sea-swept, in fact, since during 

 winter gales the waves pour across the islands in a number of 

 places. The north island is a mere ridge of gneiss, half 

 smothered under drifting sand. It rises to over 100 feet on 

 the western edge, which is carved into wild cliffs and deep 

 gullies. So great is the force of the waves here that this 

 highest point is actually the crest of a storm beach of huge 

 fragments of rock. Thence the ground slopes eastward, and 

 the eastern part of the island is all sand. South Inishkea is 

 higher, rising in the centre into a conspicuous rounded hill 

 (Knocknaskea), 230 feet high, crowned with a stone beacon ; 

 while the southern part forms a ridge over 100 feet high, 

 sloping as usual from west to east, and almost cut through by 

 the ocean in several places. Trees are entirely absent, and 

 the largest shrubs seen were a few prostrate brambles spread- 

 ing over a sheltered nook on the shore. 



Each island has on the eastern vShore a little sandy bay, 

 around which are clustered the cottages of the islanders, who 

 number 289 (1901 census), distributed almost equally between 



