1898.1 265 



IREI.AND NORTH AND SOUTH. 



Tours In the North of Ireland. Official Guide to the 

 Belfast and Northern Counties Railway, the Giant's 

 Causeway and the Antrim Coast, pp. 172, maps and illus- 

 trations. Belfast: W. and G. Baird, Ltd., 1898. Price 6^. 



The Sunny Side of Ireland. How to see it by the Great 

 Southern and Western Railway. By John O'Mahony. 

 pp. 236, 7 maps and 130 illustrations. Dublin : A. Thom and Co., Ivtd. 

 Price 1 5-. 



All well-wishers to our country will welcome the enterprise shown by 

 the Irish railway companies in endeavouring to spread information and 

 invite visitors by the issue of such attractive guide-books as those now 

 before us. A few months ago Mr. Praeger's Guide to the Co. Down 

 district was noticed in our columns ; it is encouraging to lind that other 

 parts of Ireland are being similarly popularised. 



The Northern Counties Guide consists for the most part of clear 

 topographical information on the country lying between Belfast and 

 Londonderry, with brief and reliable historical notes. The distances 

 between the various points of interest, methods of communication, boat 

 and car fares are given in commendable detail, and the reader is allured 

 to visit the scenes described by the fine series of Mr. Welch's photo- 

 graphs which illustrate the book. The information regarding the line, 

 its stations, hotels, cloak-rooms, book- stalls, and similar accessories to 

 the comfort of travel will be found of value. We notice, however, that 

 of eleven articles quoted as sold at the Compan3'"s refreshment-rooms, 

 only one (bread and butter) is a food, while there are seven different 

 kinds of intoxicants ; this will not attract the hungry. And it is with 

 regret that we observe that only first class passengers can obtain 

 luncheon or dinner on the trains. 



Naturalists will be most attracted by the closing pages of the book, 

 where they will find a concise geological history of the district with 

 special reference to the scenery by Prof. G. A. J. Cole, a short survey of 

 the flora by Mr. Praeger, and archaeological notes by Mr. W. Gray. It is 

 a healthy sign that the attention of casual tourists should be called to the 

 meaning of the natural objects by which they pass; a landscape becomes 

 far more interesting when the gazer has some glimmering of how it has 

 come to be. We rejoice to see geology and botany thus pressed on the 

 traveller's notice, but why should zoology be altogether passed by ? 

 The waters of Belfast Lough, made classical ground to the naturalist by 

 the researches of Thompson and his colleagues, the bird-haunted shores 

 of Lough Swilly, the presence of such rarities among British moths on 

 the Antrim and Derry coasts as Heliothis sciitosa, and Nyssia zo/iaria were 

 surely worthy of mention. 



