always before the door, for the accommodation of the most horribly filthy animals-said animals, in the mean time, equally and worthily occupying the domicil with the human beings who inhabit it. And to complete the picture of general misery, women beggars surrounded us every time we stopped, with children in their arms, imploring charity. From the numbers of children, indeed, it would seem as if this were the most prolific country under heaven. But it may be, because none of them go to school, and all live out of doors.

The latter part of the ride, through Newry, Hillsborough, and Lisburn, has been through a beautiful and rich country, and has been, indeed, such a redeeming scene for my general impressions of Ireland, that I am most glad to have passed through it.

We have passed a number of large peat bogs. They are evidently the beds of decayed forests; for trees are constantly dug out of them. Do I remember to have read, or have I heard, that some king of England, perhaps Richard II., finding that the forests of Ireland rendered it difficult of conquest, gave to his English subjects, who would come over and settle in Ireland, as much land as

they would fell the wood upon? If so, an act of destruction and tyranny laid up a treasure for the future wants of Ireland, and one almost indispens able to the existence of the people—and a treasure too, not only of materials for warming their houses, but for building them. For the trunks of those ancient forests are found in these peat bogs in such a state of preservation that they are actually valuable timber-particularly the spruce; the oak too, though not so sound.

CUSHENDALL, JULY 10. The ride to-day, in the county of Antrim, of which indeed Belfast is the shire town, and through the villages of Carrickfergus, Larne, and Glenarm, has been delightful. The vicinity of Belfast, on this side, is rich in scenery; and the little village of Antrim, directly under your eye and almost under your feet, as you descend the lofty hill which you pass over to reach it, with its imbowering groves of trees, and the fine seat and grounds of some lord of the manor here, is a perfect charm. The road has been mostly by the seashore, winding around bold bluffs, and promontories, and rocky crags, and has presented many delightful views of intermingled ocean and hill or mountain scenery. Latterly, the rocky barriers of the ocean, by which I have been passing, have begun to assume something of that appearance of

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regular formation which I expect to see perfected at the Giants' Causeway.

This northeastern part of Ireland was originally settled by the Scotch, and it bears a very different aspect from the southern portions of the route on which I have been passing. There is every where an appearance of thrift and comfort; and beggars have almost disappeared. The countenances of the people show a different origin-are more agreeable, more intelligent, more alive with expression -nay, and shorter and broader. I saw two or three schoolhouses, also, which I have scarcely met with before, on my way.

JULY 11. BUSHMILLS, two miles from the Giants' Causeway. The road is through Ballycastle to this place.

Nothing, it would seem, can resist abject, deep, desperate poverty, for we have passed through two or three small villages to-day, of Scottish origin, which are, if possible, more insufferably dirty than any I have seen before, albeit Irish.

Carrick-a-Rede is about six miles on the road to the Causeway-a place of tremendous precipices by the sea; with a hanging bridge suspended on ropes over a chasm eighty feet deep, leading to a small island, where is a salmon fishery. The ropes looked very small, and very old. I inquired of

the guide how old they were, and he said, many years. I advised him in conscience to inform all travellers of that fact, and promised him his task of conducting them over would be excused, as it was of performing that service for me; for I have no chances of life to throw away, when no good is to result either to myself or others. The colour of the sea-green water here, with dark masses of sea weed interspersed, is more beautiful than I ever saw elsewhere.

GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. No one should come here, without taking a boat, if the state of the water will permit, and going to see the great cavern and the Pleaskin; which are the sublime things about this wonderful work of nature. The cavern is six hundred feet long, and the arch over it, ninety feet high. The Pleaskin is the loftiest and most regular part of the gigantic ledge of basaltic rocks. One bold head or promontory advances forward perhaps a hundred and fifty feet in front of the general line of the precipice, and on each side the columns retreat in the form of an amphitheatre. There are several others indeed, but this is the most striking. There is one that sustains a rock, which is called "the Crown," but the Pleaskin cliff appears as if it were the throne of the place, supported by ranges of peers on each

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side; and thus it has stood out and met, unshaken, the storms of thousands of years.

After examining these spots, I went to the lower ranges of columns which rise just above the water, and landed from the boat to inspect them. They are wonderfully curious; of all sizes and shapesfrom six to eighteen inches in diameter, from the triangle to the nine sided figure—though the hexagonal form is the most common-and so exactly fitted together, that in some places the water stands on them without finding any passage down. Each column consists of many parts, as is usually seen in columns of human construction. The length of the parts varies, from six to twelve and eighteen inches, and one has been found about five feet long. To give strength to the whole mass, the articulations or joints of the columns are never in the same line, but vary-some of the blocks rise a little above others, presenting not a level but an uneven surface on the top. And furthermore, the surfaces at the ends of the separate blocks are never plain, but convex and concave, the two kinds of surfaces always and exactly fitting into each other.

The height of the precipices upon the shore here is from three hundred and fifty to four hundred feet. The upper half only is columnar. The steamboat in

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