SYMONDS NOTES OF A GEOLOGIST IN IRELAND. 333 



Killarney ; for to the rich glow of verdure and esquisite combination of 

 colour, which makes Killarney so justly famous, Cara unites the wildest 

 hill- scenery in Ireland. In geology, the district represents the fans of 

 Brecon, but the mountains are higher, more rugged, and retain on their 

 weathered sides and surfaces deep furrows and scratches, and 

 innumerable boulder-rocks, the sure sign of ice and glacier action in 

 days long since past. 



Walking among these hills is most fatiguing, owing to the boulders 

 which cover the sides ; and it is quite necessary to warn the traveller 

 against being overtaken by night, when it becomes absolutely dangerous. 

 We ascended one of the highest mountains of the Black Yalley," and 

 all the way from Lough Cara we observed that the dark, heather- 

 covered moors were studded with innumerable blocks of grey rocks, 

 which had been rent from the mountain side, and were dropped by ice- 

 rafts floating out to sea by way of the Lough Cara Yalley. The head of 

 the Pass into the Black Yalley must have been the actual bed of a large 

 glacier which filled up the valley, and has left long lines of debris, 

 marking the old moraines. 



Seated on the crest of a deep ravine, facing the King of the Keeks 

 (Carran Tual), we looked over the wildest scene we ever beheld in the 

 British Isles. Around us, on the hill summit, all was desert-like and 

 lonely ; not a sound was heard save the bleating of a distant goat ; and 

 at our feet lay a dark, deep valley, covered with grey boulder-stones, 

 whence a shroud of mist was rising, and which might well have 

 furnished a painter with a subject for the Yalley of Death, ^d the 

 sun shone upon hill rising above hill, with bold rocks intermingled with 

 the purple blossom of various heaths and the bright yellow of the 

 gorse ; while in the distance gleamed a lake, and here and there were 

 scattered a half-ruined chapel or smoking hovel. Crossing the platform 

 on the summit to the eastern edge, we looked down upon the outlet of 

 the Black Yalley and the Lakes of beautiful Killarney, the headlands 

 of the Eeeks and the mountains of Dromore stretching away on either 

 side, while a short walk in the opposite direction gives a magnificent 

 view of Bantry Bay, with the Islands of Scara and Dursey, dim and 

 distant. The march homewards also required many a halt among scenes 

 of solemn and imposing character. 



Descending the hill-side we observed specimens of the Saxifraga 

 umlrosa, though not in flower; also in marshy ground the leaves of 



