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A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SOME PLACES NEAR KILLARNEY, 
OUT OF THE BEATEN TRACK OF ORDINARY TOURISTS : 
WITH REMARKS ON THE IGNEOUS ROCKS OF THE DIS- 
TRICT. 
By " A Beotheb of the Hammee." 
Reader, 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 
well 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 
