xxii DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLE OF MAN 
tainted by mine refuse, but Glen Roy, which joins it at 
Laxey, has a clean trout stream, forking higher up into 
several branches, on one of which is the haunted pool of 
Nikkesen, and affording scenery of a charming character. ‘In 
such valleys,’ in the words of Brown, ‘the sons of God might 
not unfitly wander. The great hollow of the dale of Laxey, 
framed by lofty hills, to which the plantations, farmsteads, 
and cultivated fields of its lower reaches offer a charming 
contrast, and dotted along its seaward part by the white 
houses of its far-stretching and yearly increasing village, is 
one of the most striking and pleasant of Manx landscapes. 
Corna Glen is in its upper part also of a wild character 
similar to that of Laxey, but its lower course, and that of 
its tributary, Rhenab Glen, is wildly sylvan, with brakes 
of hazel, anemones, hyacinths, and fern; it opens to a 
beautiful solitary creek in the rocky coast of Maughold. 
South of the central valley the mountains are lower, there 
is in proportion more cultivated land, and the valleys have 
a more open character. The highest points are South Barrule 
(1585), a dark heather-clad eminence which dominates the 
whole south of the island, and whose top shows traces of 
ancient fortification, and Cronk ny Irey Lhaa (1449). From 
these the Santon and Silverburn streams flow to the east 
and south, and those of Foxdale and Glenmay to the north 
and west. The summit of Cronk ny Irey Lhaa? falls 
abruptly to the western sea, and a steep and waste mountain- 
side is continued for some miles south along the coast, and 
again across Fleshwick. Bradda has a similar sea-edge. 
The lonely Glen Rushen, on the north side of these high- 
lands, passes into the pleasant little dale, Glen May,? which 
opens to the shore through a rocky ravine. 
1 Probably ‘Hill of the Rise of Day,’ because the fishermen engaged off the 
western coast looked for the sunrise to its summit. 
2 Better ‘Glen Meay’; the old pronunciation was something like ‘ Moy.’ 
