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often contains this red clay, and not gravel. The swelling outline is occasioned by the easy decomposition of this material, during the action of higher waters. In all the acclivities the farmer may be sure, that the surface of his field, if the soil is clay, is but the solution of those strata, which penetrate under the mountain; and which, from their calcareous nature, may become in the highest degree profitable.

There are also, midway to the tops of the mountains, a kind of terraces, sometimes extending, with the range, for miles, and are, frequently, two or three hundred yards in breadth. If they lie near the lime, their fertility is great; if in fallen masses, then it depends on the nature of the superficial stratum.

An inexperienced observer would frequently be led to think, that the rocky strata lay much lower; but this is owing to the crowds of tumbled stones, which have rolled from above. For it is an invariable fact, that basalt never is found stratified, although it sometimes penetrates, beneath white lime.

Above the limestone is the region of basalt, and the soil thenceforth without clay. It is only a rust, or oxide, of the softer parts of this iron-stone. It is loose, heaves with moisture, and has neither cohesion nor strength: witness the wretched crops of every thing, but potatoes and straw. The country people significantly term it, deaf land.

But, though this soil is ungrateful to the plough, even the summits are admirable sheep-walks. I shall here make an observation, which is true so far as my experience goes. However high the situation of a basalt mountain, yet if the immediate subsoil be of that fossil, which is copiously intermixed with basalt, known to the country people by the name of rotten rock, (i. e. zeolite trapp) in this case the soil is comparatively fertile, and the herbage sweet. Thus, for example, the highest verge of Benyevenagh, 1280 feet above the sea, is greedily fed upon by sheep; and, instead of the coarse and aquatic plants, presents an elegant carpeting of shamrock, daisy, buttercup, and plantains. The same observation applies to Benbradagh in similar circumstances.

But where the subsoil is hard basalt, there we find bleak knolls, rising out of bog, deformed with sprat and heath, and all the inesculent products of the morass.

It is also a fact that, when the character of the basalt is soft, that is, where the flinty matter is in proportion less than it is found in the columnar or tabular varieties, then, the stone ochreates and exfoliates. The farmer may observe this in the stone-ditch, or rocky knoll; the appearance is, as if a flake of rusty pot-metal had been loosely fastened on the stone. This is, in fact, the process of the formation of these soils, and it will be found, that there is always a depth of receptive earth, where this process is observable. The country people think, that it is the stone, and not the soil, which is increasing.

Vale of the Mayola.

The vale of the Mayola, bounded by the descent of Sliabh-gallan to the south, has to the north, the declivities extending from Moneynieeny to Carntogher; and so far it divides basaltic promontories. Further to the west, the sources of its waters are, in the high regions of the shist mountains, connected with Sawel.

The soils near a river, which spreads its feeders through mountainous tracts, are always subject to the ravages of their torrents. Such is the case of the Mayola.

By embankments sufficiently strong, the rich levels, which are found in this valley, might doubtless be secured. As it is, they are ravaged by the change of the channel, and the spread of the waters. Bridges are carried away; the very roads are sometimes obliterated. Proceeding to the opening of this vale, near the parsonage of Ballynaschreen, the banks, for the most part, are high enough to restrain the waters; yet the soil, though most frequently fertile, is in many places barren and cold; and this too where such surfaces might not be expected.

Advancing still farther toward its opening, the swells of sand and

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gravel seem to have buried the rich loams, which might here be expected, like to those which you have left behind. These swells are intermixed with mossy bottoms and flats of ling. Of this character is the greatest part of the surface, near the parsonage of Killcronaghan. The lower these swells are, of so much the better ingredients they are composed. On the contrary, the great conic hills, which stand forth to betoken the ancient current of the Bann, in the flats of Lough Neagh, contain little or no minute substances, but consist of water-worn paving stones.* I took from their quarries specimens of basalt, flint, white limestone, shist, gneis, quartz, granular limestone, and granite both red and grey, all rolled and rounded by water, and all referable to strata not very remote.

The dells or bottoms among these great swells, are often inclined to a mossy surface; the midway tracts are light and hungry; the summits are absolutely barren.

Upon the whole, we may say, that the soils throughout the lower region are various. Rust of basalt, gravel, shiver of slate, pebble of quartz, blue clay, and moss frequently reddened by solution of iron, constitute the materials, which go to the composition of its soils. The strata, laid open by the north-eastern declivity of Sliabh-gallan, like all those which sustain the basalt, are of the same mixed character, as has been described, when treating of Magilligan, and the east of the Roe. In this district, these soils, in their nature stiff, are little inhabited, and less brought into tilth. Nevertheless they are highly improveable, being in the neighbourhood both of lime and turf.

Above this lies the stratum of white limestone, and over this a cap of basalt.

Nearly the same may be said of the soils below the basalt mountains, on the opposite side. There is, however, no limestone on this ridge; that had vanished at the summit of Benbradagh.

* I am obliged to use common-place terms; our language is peculiarly deficient in names descriptive of the shapes and divisional contents of rocks or surfaces.

We will take leave of this tract by marking the two passages, by which it may be entered from above, that is, from the south-west and north-west.

On the Sliabh-gallan side, the entrance into this valley from the south-west is in every respect naked, except where, in some few spots, a clump of native alders bestows an air of ornament. Descending on the side of Moneynieeney, the appearance is equally wild. As you descend by the winding of the stream, the diversified surface of the ground, with hamlets and tufts of trees, form a more agreeable landscape.

The mountains at the top, or to the east, are all shist. Those to the south-east approach to granite. The line dividing the basalt from those primitive mountains, passes under Moneynieeney, and thence across the valley, to the east of the cairns of Sliabh-gallan, and so down by Tin-teagh, to the confines of Moneymore. The soils in this interval are sandy or gravelly, and are, for a great part, the solution of the grit, which intervenes between the termination of the basalt and commencement of the other mountains.

Coast of Lough-neagh with its Flats.

If you suppose a line drawn from the northern part of Lough-beg to the base of Sliabh-gallan, which advances on the south of the Mayola; this line, taken with that of the shores of the lakes and the march of the county, will include an irregular triangle, whose area is the district we are going to describe. At another place we shall notice the high regions, which form the partition of this vale from that of the Mayola. At present we begin where the small river of Lissean,* having passed the heaths, is preparing to enter on the plane.

• This word is usually, yet, I should suppose, improperly, spelled "Lissane.” “Lis” signifies, in Irish, the occasional residence of a chief, at the season of sports; and I take our old word "List" (a place of courtly tournament) to come from the same origin: "Ean" signifies a river. The rural residence on the stream, is accurately descriptive of this site of the fort on the rivulet. Mr. Staples has too distinguished a good taste, to take amiss the restoration of derivative orthography.

The soil is a sharp sand of granite. This obtains over the whole district, until the commencement of the basalt, at Carn-daisey. It also spreads from the rocks to the flats below. This species of gravel formed by the more siliceous particles of decomposed granite, is not fertile; the crops of oats and potatoes are light, but timber seems to succeed. The heaths above, and on a level with this, are capable of easy and profitable improvement; they are deep enough, in general, to afford burning to the depth of one foot, reserving one or two more of the peat to form a soil. The streams, which pour copiously down these declivities, are ready to perform the duty of perpetual fertilization, whenever the surface has once been converted into meadow, a species of cultivation, which answers best in high climates. It is not till you have passed the improvements of Lissean, that you can justly call the level of the county fertile; for though Mr. Staples has covered the bog with the verdure of meadow, and the sharp gravels or cold till with barley and oats, yet the natural state of the surface, having been wild, has still a propensity to reassume this condition.

The low country exhibits a rich landscape. It seems to be a mixture between a sandy and a clayey loam. The surface of the former is generally swelling, while that of the latter is plane. Some extensive flow-bogs are the only interruption to its fertility; otherwise, its entire contents are deserving of the highest commendation. Barley seems to be the favourite crop, even in those strong loams, which would produce wheat of prime quality.

Around Coagh we find considerable steeps, and thence to Springhill great variety of soils; for, besides those above mentioned, there is a calcareous loam of excellent quality. There is also peat-moss in the interior of these heights, but not more than will furnish a sufficiency of fuel.

This range of high land is extremely beautiful, at Spring-hill, and over the town of Money-more. It is a stately terrace, whose perpendicular section, viewed from the westward below, exhibits under a

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