. I have also
been obliged to speak of myself in a very personal manner, but I did not
see how I could put the reader in possession of the geographical points
of the case, without describing the duties I had to perform, and the
country I had to traverse.

E. DONALD CARR.

WOLSTASTON RECTORY,
_April_ 17, 1865.

A NIGHT IN THE SNOW.

The mountains of South-West Shropshire are less known to the lovers of
fine scenery than their great beauty deserves, though they are familiar
to most geologists as the typical region of the lowest fossil-bearing
deposits. Of this group of hills the highest is the Long Mynd, a
mountain district of very remarkable character, and many miles in extent.
It is about ten miles long, and from three to four miles in breadth. Its
summit is a wide expanse of table land, the highest part of which is
nearly seventeen hundred feet above the level of the sea. The whole of
this unenclosed moorland is covered with gorse and heather, making it
extremely gay in the summer time; it is also tolerably abundant in grouse
and black game, and so fruitful in bilberries, that from 400 to 500
pounds worth are said to have been gathered on it in the course of a
single season. On first hearing it, this sounds an improbable statement;
but any one who has been upon the mountain in a good "whinberry season"
as it is called, will readily understand that this is no exaggeration. To
the poor people for miles around, the "whinberry picking" is the great
event of the year. The whole family betake themselves to the hill with
the early morning, carrying with them their provisions for the day; and
not unfrequently a kettle to prepare tea forms part of their load. I
know no more picturesque sight than that presented by the summit of the
Long Mynd towards four o'clock on an August afternoon, when numerous
fires are lit among the heather, and as many kettles steaming away on the
top of them, while noisy, chattering groups of women and children are
clustered round, glad to rest after a hard day's work. A family will
pick many quarts of bilberries in the day, and as these are sold at
prices varying from 3d. to 5d. a quart, it will be readily understood
that it is by no means impossible that the large sum of 400 or 500 pounds
should thus be realised in a single season.

The appearance of this Long Mynd mountain on the northern side, looking
towards Shrewsbury, presents no feature of striking interest, and the
asce