DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLE OF MAN xvii 
the level presents the pleasant aspect of a checker-work of 
many-coloured fields, with the Sulby at the spectator’s feet, 
and here a comparatively slow stream, winding eastward in 
many loops to the sea at Ramsey. No rock is visible 
throughout this district, but it is crossed by a line of low 
hills of sandy cultivated soil, which meet the coast to the 
east in the bold sand and clay cliffs of Shellag. The 
country is thickly sprinkled with prosperous-looking 
farmsteads;1 the tall sod fences which divide it are in 
summer covered with blossom, especially the scented yellow 
bedstraw (Galiwm verum). In the west beyond the gap 
by which the Lhen trench discharges the waters of the 
Curragh, the knolls where Jurby Church stands con- 
spicuous form a similar coast to that at Shellag, but lower ; 
and still further south and west, beyond the mouths of 
the Carlane and Ballaugh streams, Orrisdale Head is the 
culminating point of yet more sandhills, falling steeply to 
the sea, and rapidly wasting under the influence of the 
weather. Orrisdale Head and parts of the Jurby coast are 
sandy wastes. The brows are in many places riddled with 
the holes of Sand Martins. 
North of this low hill range, and forming the point of 
the island, lies the Ayre, a sandy and gravelly waste, gay 
with a profusion of flowers, which vary according to the 
season—THrica cinerea, Lotus, Ulex nanus, Convolvulus solda- 
nella, Brassica monensis, rest-harrow, wild thyme, sea holly, 
and sea reed. This ground is a notable breeding place of 
various species of birds. A very steep beach of large 
1 MacCulloch, who in his work on the Western Islands (1819) has well 
described the natural features of Man, says of this northern tract: ‘ As it pos- 
sesses but little wood, it offers no beauty to the traveller’s eyes beyond that 
which arises from the aspect of fertility, and from that of a scattered and 
apparently wealthy rural population. This indeed is a circumstance which will 
forcibly strike the English observer who is accustomed to see large tracts, even 
when in high cultivation, occupied by a few opulent tenants whose houses are 
scarcely visible in the agricultural waste.’ 
