The Scottish Naturalist. 



213 



to leave London earlier in the season than I could have wished, 

 I found myself once more in Lerwick on the 30th June, and left 

 the same evening for Mid Yell. One whole day was spent in this 

 island, — partly in walking round the large Loch of Lumbister, and 

 partly in working the Dall of Lumbister, a beautiful ravine through 

 which flows the small burn which drains the loch. Nothing of 

 special note was met with in the Loch, except the interesting new 

 Potamogeton mentioned below. The Dall of Lumbister produced 

 several good plants, chief among which was a species of Hieracium, 

 first met with in 1886, at Mid Yell Voe, and in Unst, and which 

 was afterwards found in a fourth locality in Northmaven. This 

 species, the name of which is at present uncertain, but which has 

 not yet been detected elsewhere in Britain, seems widely dis- 

 tributed in the northern half of the Shetland islands. The 

 following day was spent' in walking through the island to Burravoe, 

 and getting across thence to Ollaberry, where I remained during 

 the rest of the time. 



Roeness Hill flanks the northern shore of Roeness Voe, a deep 

 inlet on the west coast of the northern division of the Mainland, 

 and is continued nearly to the east coast by a chain of hills which 

 ends near Collafirth. From this point a somewhat interrupted 

 range, including the Bergs of Skelberry, extends northward to 

 Fedaland. These ranges form two of the limits of an area con- 

 taining, roughly, a hundred square miles, and which is bounded 

 on the west and north by sea cliffs of varying altitude. The 

 enclosed basin consists almost entirely of barren moorland, dotted 

 over with innumerable lochs, most of which contain but little 

 vegetation ; and I failed to find either the Phragmites or Nymphtza, 

 both recorded from this locality by Edmondston. Probably, how- 

 ever, this part would repay a careful examination, especially 

 if some of the more distant sea-cliffs were reached. On the 

 days when I visited it heavy rains and thick fogs prevailed, 

 and made it impossible to see much. It would be difficult to 

 imagine a more desolate region than this tract, under the circum- 

 stances described ; no human being is ever seen there, nor much 

 animal life of any kind, except the numerous gulls which frequent 

 some of the lochs ; and the compass and aneroid are necessaries 

 of life. 



Yet on the whole the district was far from disappointing. 

 Several new Hieracia were gathered; and a few plants new to the 



