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A ERIEF DESCRIPTION OF SOME PLACES ^TEAR KILLAENEY, 

 OUT OE THE EEATEIN' TRACK OE ORDINARY TOURISTS : 

 WITH REMARKS OK THE IGNEOUS ROCKS OE THE DIS- 

 TRICT. 



By A Beother of the Hammee." 



Readee, have you ever visited the far-famed' Lakes of Killarney ? 

 If you have not; by all means go there ; and if you are a geologist as 

 vrell as a lover of beautiful scenery, the pleasure of the visit will be 

 greatly enhanced. 



There you have lofty and rugged mountains (some of them clothed 

 with wood nearly to the summit), from whose sides gush limpid foun- 

 tains, increasing in force as they descend, and in their onward course 

 madly leaping down the steep cataracts, until they are at last lost in the 

 majestic lake beneath,— the admixture and variety of the whole being 

 beautifully harmonized and softened by the extraordinarily luxuriant 

 foliage of thousands of plants, from the stately oak, the bushy 

 arbutus, and dark green holly, to the humble but graceful " London 

 Pride" (Saxifraga umbrosa), the abundance of which seldom fails to 

 attract the notice of the most casual observer. 



The mountains are formed of rocks of the " old red sandstone period," 

 the upper division of that group or yellow sandstone" being gene- 

 rally observed at the foot of the slope, this being again overlaid 

 conformably by the '^mountain-limestone," which extends in many 

 a contortion over the plain. 



In the rocks of the ''old red sandstone " a geological eye will at once 

 be struck by the fine examples of glacial action exhibited in the 

 scratches and groovings of their surfaces, caused by the sharp edges of 

 blocks and fragments of other rocks, contained in icebergs, having passed 

 over them ; such markings being, for a considerable extent, parallel, 

 or nearly so. ' , 



The ordinary visitor to Killarney is generally forced to traverse the 

 same beaten track which hundreds of others have trodden before him. 

 Most people stay for three days only or a week, and during that 

 time are completely at the mercy of hotel-keepers and guides for the 

 disposal of their time ; thus losing much both of the picturesque and 



