ZOOLOGICAL AND BOTANICAL ASSOCIATION. 25 



daughters, two tall and, strange to say, elegant-looking girls, with beau- 

 t it ul figures, never deformed by the cruel foolery of stays, or corsets, or 

 cinctures. The one was knitting real Connemara stockings, while the 

 other, barefooted, was spinning the material for them. Their hair was 

 put up with great taste, precisely after the fashion of Canova's Venus, 

 and their graceful movements and gentle manners were in strict ac- 

 cordance. Yet they were only peasant girls in the very centre of Con- 

 nemara. The only fault I found in them was one in which they re- 

 sembled fine ladies: it was the abhorrence expressed in their countenances 

 when I seized a magnificent specimen of a nomad spider, which dropped 

 from the smoked roof of their cabin. They expressed their feelings in 

 Irish, and I caught the word Prumpillaun,* and said, ' Here are some,' 

 producing a box of beetles. They were certain that I had consequently 

 understood all they said, and seemed in dire confusion." 



"We stopped at an ancient hill fort, and having made out the 

 covered way which led into it, endeavoured to open it from the top. 

 After considerable labour, we failed in making a practicable breach ; 

 and a number of country boys having assembled around us, we deter- 

 mined on astonishing the natives. I was dressed in my white cloak 

 and cap, and with sundry gesticulations cast into the hole three Prome- 

 thean matches, which I ignited by biting with my teeth. I then 

 contrived to slip in father's musical watch, and we had a tune from the 

 bowels of the earth. After certain mysterious allusions we walked off 

 in silent dignity, leaving the spectators looking on with the strongest 

 expressions of wonder in their countenances !" 



" On our way to this cottage (the Corrib Hotel) several fine Sphin- 

 gidee passed us. They were large, and of a bright brown colour, but 

 were too smart for me, though, at the risk of my neck, I jumped off the 

 car and gave chase." « 



Next morning they started for Corrig, driving along Lough Corrib: 

 — M Arriving near Corrig, we went to see the Pigeon Hole, a cavern, 

 the descent to which is by many steps. Through it runs a pure river ; 

 it was shown to us by a woman of perhaps seventy or eighty years of 

 age. She added much to the wildness of the scene, being a shrivelled 

 hag of considerable activity ; in this visit she did not cut as picturesque 

 an appearance as when first I saw her, last year. It was late at night, 



• A black beetle. 

 ZOOL. * BOT. SOC. PROC. — VOL. I. E 



