tions; and these are on the banks of the streams, and still more at their junctions; where these happen, we find, as usual, favourite and fertile swells.

Returning to the banks of the Bann, where it receives the Claudy river, we meet some good gravel. By the way of Miagney, through Tamlaght O'Creely, there is little to interest, except in some fortunate patches of fertility. The only varieties are bog, rock, and rusty soil. From Tamlaght, with some exception, the same naked knolls, the same rock, the same fruitless soil: here and there, below the rocky knoll a lake is in place of a bog; but the tree, that used to shelter that lake, and to shadow that rock, is no more: at the Grove, the picture and the soil improve.

The interior of this region is greatly enlivened by the scenery around Garvagh. The demesne of Mr. Canning can boast of a beautiful landscape and majestic forest trees. The bank of the river, from Garvagh, past the glebe of Errigal, to the lodge of Major Heyland, is among the most picturesque sceneries of this county. The soils are chiefly rubble and rust of basalt, in the lower district; in the middle flats, they consist of lithomarga; and in the high regions we find the soil a decomposition of the primitive rocks, and the rocks themselves the sub-strata.

High gravels and lakes at Kilrea, which want only a replacement of wood, to form a landscape. This pleasing picture is of short continuance; except in some chosen spots, particularly along the Maycosquin, the Agivey, and Aghadowey streams, and in the neighbourhood of Landmore, Bovagh, Keely, and Ballybrittan.

At Camus there is some nice gravel, and even loamy flats. Near the Bann at Castleroe there is also good soil. The same flat extends to the bridge of Coleraine, but it is cold clay, liable to flood, and ill managed. Along the heights is the farm of Tamnamoney, in general cold and stiff, but delightfully situated above the fall of the Bann, at the Salmon Leap, and overlooking the extensive plantations of our first-rate improver and resident country gentleman,

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Mr. Richardson. At Mr. Kyle's, and to the interior, we meet with some better grounds, especially in the bottom, near the suburb of Kilowen.

The demesne of Jackson-hall is of a superior quality. The rest of the bank is barren enough. From Jackson-hall to the sandy country, bordering on Ban-brook, there extends along the river a great flat; its surface, for the most part, mossy, poached by the feet of cattle, and taken up with unprofitable plants. Some future day will see it dressed into meadow, of which improvement it is certainly capable.

Let us now pass over the Bann, to sketch the soil and surface of the Liberties on the Antrim side.

The soil, on which Coleraine stands, with the immediate townparks, is a rubble of basalt, water-rolled in general. Whatever has been the original hue, the surface has now the dark brown colour of mould, abounding in vegetable matter. The opportunity of being often dunged is in part the cause of this, and of its productive capacity.

Towards Mount Sandle the soil becomes more clayey and less fertile. Artificial moats or raths, peculiarly that of Mount Sandle itself, diversify the surface. These are more ornamental by means of the planting, which is flourishing on several of them. The islands in the Bann are not without their share of landscape beauty. Other banks are in a state of stupid incultivation, overgrown with whin.

On Mr. Crommie's property, a turfy surface is sometimes spread over a bottom of clay. The rounded hills, when opened, shew basalt materials, water-rolled and stratified, some to the size of a large paving-stone.

I was sorry to note the quicks in the hedge-row failing greatly in this district. The same defect of the quick-thorn in most of the basalt countries is observable; the plant stunts, and the bark is covered with fog; this is not the case, to the same extent, in shistose soils.

Returning, or rather crossing through Ballynag and Ballyvendrick, we find some shelving grounds, with a soil more manageable. The swells are good in the middle parts of Knockencarrick; the bottoms are of coarse meadow.

Hence proceeds that range of stratified knolls, of which Dunmul is the highest, and which, extending by Islemore and Cloyfin, confine the liberties, of Coleraine,

By Roselick, Ballygallagh, and Ballyaghran, keeping to the higher lands, we pass through those knolls of basalt, with all their accompaniments. The same description answers to all the higher ridges, between Mr. Crommie's and the road to Spital-hill. From the sandy part of the coast, ranging with the Bann, towards Coleraine, there is a sloping ground of nice basalt gravel; it is intermixed with good dark vegetable mold, is fertile, particularly in barley, and produces oats in great request, as a change of seed, for the clay farms in other districts.

At Flowerfield there is a dip or hollow, in whose bottom is blue marl. The same substance is abundant in this neighbourhood on the west bank, and in the channel of the Bann.

At Ballysally the rocky grounds push almost to the river, straitening the fertile lands, which again open widely on passing by Mr. Blacker's demesne, including some neatly dressed town-parks on the north-eastern approaches to Coleraine.

I shall conclude this sketch by adverting once more to those insulated knolls of basalt, which, at a distance, so much resemble Danish fortifications, and which have been so often noticed.

of

Whoever considers these knolls, will find them to be a structure very hard basalt, and in general so pure, as to attain nearly to a columnar arrangement; and whoever gives himself the trouble to examine the range of basaltic strata, on any great extent, where they are sufficiently laid open, will find that the stratified materials, taken horizontally, will afford great variety of fossil substances, from the hardness of silex to the softness of steatite. Should

any of these strata have been near the surface, during the action of waters, in immediate contact with them, is it not likely, that the softer materials would first yield to that element? Is it not equally likely that, where the harder portions of these strata resisted the decomposing fluid, they would retain their original level and posture? If these questions can be satisfactorily answered in the affirmative, there will remain no difficulty in accounting for those insulative knolls of basalt, without the hypothesis of their being thrust up from their native beds, by any force of volcanoes.

After all that has been offered, I should think, that the description of soils and surface were incomplete, if I omitted to make the reader somewhat acquainted with the interiors of those great barriers, which interpose between the vales and vallies of the county. It is not to tire him by travelling over rock and heath, but to lead him through those secluded inlets, among mountains, known to the inhabitants under the name of slacks,* where oftentimes there lurks a charming spot of fertile soil and romantic scenery.

Slack of Faghanvale.

This leads from the high lands of Ballywolly through Glassyowrin, (the green mountain-ash) by Altachacket to Slaghmanus, thence by the slack of Burn-tolloght, past the Ness; or else, by the side of the Ervay stream, passing the base of Mullaghboy, and so by Brackfield, to the vale of the Fahan.

Through this slack two roads have commenced, which will be of use in opening the bogs and lime-quarries, several of which lay unexplored in this district. With the addition of lime, great wonders may be wrought in these naked glens, in which, near the streams, the soil is not ungenial. At present the cottagers, scattered over the best patches, are poor, and their improvements limited. After topping the high valley-ground, there is a tract in sight, between the fall of the

* The term slack, though provincial, is nevertheless strictly descriptive and metaphorical; it means a sinking in the outline like the partial remission of an extended rope.

waters, looking either to the South-west or North-east, which, considering the elevation, is surprisingly green. Great part of it has been anciently under the plough; nor was it till the value of beef arrived at the war price, that the holders of these farms were induced to waste the hamlets, and turn the ground to pasture.

The green herbage, skirting the banks of the streams, is a contrast to the heaths, through which their vales wind. There is scarce any track, still less may we call it a road, through these passages.

In some places the rocky falls of water are truly enchanting to the lover of landscape. The recollection of being far from any human being, adds not a little to the awful contemplations, which such scenery inspires.

Passing by the cromlech of Slaghtmanus, there is a slide-car rutway to Listress, and thence past the water-fall of the Ness. I shall say something of the beauty of this scenery again; suffice it here, that about Listress are some nice lands, well occupied. A great deal more, annexed to the habitations, under the title of outsport or coarse grazing, might and will be reclaimed.

Slack of Muff-glen.

This begins above the village, and is at first not without fertility. At Tamnyeerin, and by Sliabh-buck, one is even surprised at the goodness of the hanging slopes, and the forwardness of the culture. The mountain land is extremely like that already mentioned. Several roads are now in progress through this valley under the indefatigable care of its present owner. Entering on Brackfield moor, in order to trace back the passage of the slack, which opens at Muff-glen to the north-west, you pass, in the first place, over the barren moor of Brackfield. The stony substances, occasionally coming above the surface of the bog, are all shist, and are stratified, except in the instances of those detached fragments, which are bleached on the surface, like bones whitened by the weather. Here are traces of ancient timber. On the left appears the stream