ZOOLOGICAL AND BOTANICAL ASSOCIATION. 29 



earth, but which are now bringing forth a goodly crop of Irish scholars 

 whose zeal and attainments put to the blush the apathy and neglect of 

 our native students of the Celtic languages. But the spirit of enterprise 

 of which I speak was not altogether in ancient times confined to mis- 

 sionary labour. We have traces of what may be very well called 

 scientific researches, for they were so in that age as much as its light 

 admitted. I will just refer to one or two cases, only : the first is that 

 of an individual named Dicuil, who was the author of a remarkable 

 treatise entitled " De Mensura Orbis Terne." In that treatise we find 

 all we know of its author. It tells us expressly that he was an Irish- 

 man, and that he undertook his travels for the purpose of geographical 

 research. The book itself is a curious specimen of an ancient scientific 

 treatise ; its genuineness is undoubted, and it is written in very Hiber- 

 nian Latin ; but the glory of its publication, Ireland, as usual, incur t- 

 osa suorum, has suffered to be appropriated by German and Italian 

 scholars. The other instance to which I refer is that of the great Saint 

 Brendan : whose celebrated voyage, although the accounts we have of 

 it are overlaid with fable, and discredited by ridiculous legends, may 

 nevertheless rest upon a substratum of true tradition. And, if so, it seems 

 possible that he may have been the earliest discoverer of America. The 

 story, divested of the fabulous, is, that he set sail (if, indeed, he had a 

 sail), from the mountain of Kerry which still bears his name ; that he 

 steered due west, and arrived at length at a land which he assumed to 

 be an island ; the narrative goes on to say that he and his companions 

 were fifteen days engaged in exploring the coast, and failed to establish 

 its insular character. The admission of this failure looks like a fragment 

 of truth, especially as the hypothesis that the unknown land was an is- 

 land is not abandoned ; but the only conclusion drawn from his failure 

 is, that it was a very large island. He celebrated during his absence 

 seven Easters, and on his return was driven to some northern islands, 

 probably the Shetlands or Orkneys; but he returned home in safety, and 

 became the founder of many churches, as well as the author of a monas- 

 tic rule, which in that ascetic age had numerous followers in Ireland. 

 To estimate the real amount of adventure in this voyage we must bear 

 in mind what was probably the state of naval architecture in the west 

 of Ireland at that remote period of time. I know my Mend here thinks 

 nothing of an iceberg, or of an avalanche ; he makes himself comforta- 

 ble at eighty degrees below freezing point, and laughs at the pelting sleet 

 of an Arctic winter ; but how would he like a trip to America in a Con- 



