borders the moss in a line parallel with the rails, and after becoming greener and softer, at last enters the wood. Filling the whole of the space between the grounds of Worsley Hall and the edge of the moss, and of purely artificial origin, this charming leafy covert received its somewhat singular name from the workmen by whose labour it was formed. So arduous was the toil demanded by the draining and subsequent planting, that they compared it to the penalty of transportation to the eighty years ago famous "Botany Bay" of the antipodes, the terror of evil doers, and precursor of the Dartmoor of to-day. Barton Moss is essentially a portion or adjunct of Chat Moss, an element of the landscape as surveyed from the higher parts of Worsley, which can hardly be considered cheerful, though rich in interesting associations, foremost among which is the history of the means adopted to overcome the difficulties it presented to the constructors of the original Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The naturalist still finds upon it abundance of welcome objects, including the bog-myrtle, _Myrica Galë_, one of the very few really indigenous British plants which can be rightfully called aromatic. A surface like Chat Moss, saturated with wet, seems in little danger of ignition, yet no further back than in June, 1868, a very considerable portion was on fire. The conflagration commenced in a plantation near Astley. Within an hour most of the trees were levelled with the ground. A strong wind was blowing at the time, the fire spread rapidly, and the flames and clouds of smoke were seen for miles. Continuing for between four and five days, at last it approached Barton, and only then did it die away. The moss is traversed hereabouts by many ditches cut for draining purposes. They are from five to eight feet wide, and twelve to fifteen feet in depth, and are generally full of water. So powerful, however, was the action of the fire, that when it expired in many of them there was scarcely an inch, and others were entirely dry. A conflagration of similar character occurred in 1790 upon Lindow Common, resulting in the destruction of an enormous quantity of the game then so plentiful there.