NOTES ON IRISH NATURAL HISTORY. 113 



forth. The wild country around the lakes admits of little 

 farming ; but the land north of Killarney is good, and lets 

 well, — 10s. and 12s. per Irish acre. It principally belongs 

 to Lords Headley and Kenmare, both highly respected by their 

 tenantry. One of those touching testimonials, so character- 

 istic of Ireland, was about to be offered to Lord Headley 

 shortly after I left : — his tenants intended inviting him to a 

 public dinner. The Irish landlords appear to be -revered 

 throughout Ireland, in a manner of which, in England, we can 

 form no notion ; a few, a very few, exceptions to this may be 

 met with, in which political landlords have uniformly turned 

 out the native residents to make room for tenantry more sub- 

 servient to their views. 



The road to Kenmare is over a bleak and wild mountainous 

 country, but little cultivated. The outline of Macgillicuddy's 

 Reeks, stretching far away to the right, I thought particularly 

 fine. I found every possible form of Polystichum aculeatum 

 growing among the rocks ; also Lastrasa Filix-mas, Las. di- 

 latata, and Athyrium Filix-foemina. Descending from the 

 high ground towards Kenmare, I was struck with the great 

 abundance and beauty of Bartsia vlscosa and Pmguicula 

 grandiflora ; and, on the high ground, with the size and lux- 

 uriance of a species of Euphorbia, perhaps Eu. Characias. 

 The land towards Kenmare belongs, I believe, almost exclu- 

 sively to the Marquis of Lansdowne. The rent is various : 

 some little farms, to which farm-houses are attached, fetch as 

 much as 5s. or 6s. per Irish acre, and I heard of one farm as 

 high as 9s., but it must be recollected that this price includes 

 the house, which, on the Lansdowne property, is almost inva- 

 riably good. 



It is a fine wild walk over the hill from Kenmare to Glen- 

 garriff : the road has lately been cut at great expense and 

 labour ; it passes through tunnels of solid rock, the last of 

 which, on the very crest of the hill, is of great length and very 

 dark, notwithstanding a light-hole in the centre from above. 

 On emerging from the last tunnel, the view southward beghis 

 to open ; it is very extensive, and the outlines are rugged and 

 extremely picturesque. The view varies with every step. — 

 Bantry Bay, its coves, islands, and sinuous shores, and 

 the wild hills rising above them, are spread map-like before 

 you. It was from this descent that I saw that most noble 

 of our native quadrupeds, the stag, browsing at a distance on 

 the mountain-side. As I approached Glengarriff there seemed 

 no end to the variety of form and colour in which rocks and 

 woods were combined. Holly, arbutus, yew, birch and oak 

 are the most abundant trees, and they seem to vie with each 



Vol. IV.— No. 39. n. s. n 



