'Don't you know, Johnny? From flax, "a graceful little plant," which can be grown in this country, because it does not require so much heat as cotton.'

II. 'Now, Green, use your eyes again, as we sail along the coast of Antrim. These are different rocks from any of the others, and are very like those in Skye, and some others of the Western Islands of Scotland.'

12. 'How funny!' cries Johnny. 'Just opposite Wales, you have Welsh rocks; and opposite Scotland, you have Scotch rocks! As if they had been so long looking at each other, that they came to have the same sort of face!'

13. 'Perhaps, Johnny, they were once joined together, and the sea has burst its way through, and parted them! However, here is something more which you will call funny. Look at these rocks: they are of a slaty kind, like those of Argyllshire, on the other side of the North Channel.'

14. 'I see something like the top of a coal-pit,' cries Johnny, from the mast-head, where he had climbed to get a better view. 'Is there any coal here?'

'Yes; there is a small coal-field at this corner of Ireland. But come down, and look at this great promontory. You will see it better from the deck.'

15. 'Well, that is grand!' says Johnny. 'It looks like a set of immense pillars, standing side by side, with the great waves rolling up to their feet. It was worth while coming to Ireland, if it was only to see those pillars.'

16. 'Yes, Johnny, it is very grand: if we had come, as you wanted, by our balloon, this would have been the first sight we should have seen. For this is the promontory of Fairhead-the nearest point of Ireland to the coast of Scotland.'

II. THE GIANT'S CAUSEWAY.

I. 'LOOK! look!' cries Johnny, as we sail on to the westward, there are more of these curious pillars !'

'Yes! all along the coast, we find pillars of the same kind as at Fairhead. We are coming now to the most famous set of them-to what is called the Giant's Causeway.'

2. 'What a funny name! What does it mean?' 'Everything in Ireland that is strange and grand is said to be the work of giants. Why this should be called a Causeway, I do not know. The word Causeway means a road; but certainly this does not look like a road, on which even a giant would choose to travel!

3. The story told is, that an Irish giant, Tir MacCool, made it as the beginning of a bridge for a Scotch giant, who was coming from Staffa to fight him. It is really, as you see, a line or row of rocks, standing upright like pillars, and rising to a great height from the edge of the sea.'

4. There are three pillars all alone,' cries Johnny, 'the tallest of them all. I should like to get to the top of them?

'Those are called the Chimneys, Johnny; the

only person who ever got to the top of them is said to have been a poor idiot boy, whose mother had died. He was told that she had gone up into Heaven; and he climbed the Chimneys, because they were the highest things he knew! He managed -no one knew how-to get safely down; but all he could say was, "I couldn't find my mammy!" 1

5. 'One more set of pillars, and then we must go on. What are those pillars like, that we see just beyond the Chimneys?'

'They are more like the organ in church than anything else,' says Green.

'Yes! they are called the Organ, because they are placed close together, like the organ pipes.

6. 'The shape of all these pillars is curious; some have three sides, some five, some seven ; but none are square, and very few have an even number. Most likely, they have been formed by fire-that is, by volcanoes working, long, long ago, beneath the surface of the water.' 2

7. 'Well!' says Johnny, drawing a long breath, ' good-bye to the Causeway! It is very grand—I like the Chimneys and the Organ very much; but I still like Fairhead best of all.'

1 See Hall's Irelana, vol. iii, pp. 164-168.

2 Ibid.

III. THE SIEGE OF LONDONDERRY.

I. 'WE have now passed the mouth of the river Bann, which rises in Lough Neagh, and divides the counties of Antrim and Londonderry.'

2. 'Captain!' cries Johnny, 'why don't you steer more to the northward? You are taking the ship straight to the land!'

'Oh! Johnny, Johnny, you want to teach the captain his business, just as you tried to teach the boatman, long ago! Wait a little while, and you will see where we are going.'

3. 'Oh! turning in here, to the left? This is a deep inlet, and there's no way out!'

True; but there's something to be seen at the head of it. This is Lough Foyle; and if you had been here, about two hundred years ago, you would have seen three or four English ships of war, with some. merchant ships behind them, sailing up this inlet towards the city of Londonderry, which stands at the head of it.

4. All round that city, were bands of wild Irishmen, trying to force their way in. Inside, the citizens were starving, for they could get no food. Yet they fought bravely; for they knew, if the city were taken, they would all be put to