LIFE AND LETTERS OF ALEXANDER GOODMAN MORE. 203 



birds, his best known work was, perhaps, done in botany ; but he 

 maintained a firm grasp of a wide range of subjects, ornithology 

 being, next to botany, his chief delight. 



Ireland and the Isle of Wight were the two districts in which 

 his life was mostly spent— the Isle of Wight in his earher and 

 Ireland in his later years. Though settled in Ireland, as events 

 proved, for life, he at one time looked forward to revisiting 

 the Isle of Wight ; and speaks in one of his letters to the writer 

 of a *' pocket-flora of the island, which I still hope that you and I 

 may undertake some day when I return to spend my declining years 

 in the old hunting-grounds." But, alas, this was not to be. His 

 health, never very strong, had suffered considerably from an expe- 

 rience of which it is strange indeed to read as occurring to a 

 naturahst in the nineteenth century in the British Isles. Visiting, 

 in July, 1873, during a dredging expedition, in company with Mr. 

 (now Sir John) Dillon, Inishkea, an island about eight miles north 

 of Achill, on the west of Ireland, More was mistaken by the 

 islanders for the author of a letter which had lately appeared in 

 print with reference to the supposed idolatrous worship by the 

 islanders of an image, probably the figure-head of a ship, for which 

 they appear to have had great regard as an ancient relic, and 

 which was called the " Neve-ogue." The islanders were " fiercely 

 indignant at the language which (they were assured) had been 

 apphed to them by the writer of the letter," and knowing that the 

 visitors had come from Achill, and that Mr. More had visited the 

 island the previous year, they erroneously inferred that the letter 

 had been written by him. Taking the opportunity of More's being 

 separated from his friend, a group of the islanders surrounded him, 

 and before he could gather the meaning of their anger " a blow 

 from a heavy piece of timber had stretched him, stunned, on the 

 ground. . . . Frequently in later life Mr. More avowed the belief 

 that he owed the preservation of his life at this juncture in no 

 small degree to the promptitude and resolution of his friend Sir 

 John Dillon, who, as he returned through the village, saw the 

 people hastening to the shore, and was horrified to find his 

 companion lying on the ground. Further molestation was plainly 

 promised, for a crowd gathered near the harbour ; and when Mr. 

 More, with his friend's assistance, was able to walk towards the 

 boat a shower of stones assailed them. Verbal remonstrance was 

 useless; and Mr. Dillon raised his breech-loader, warned the 

 people that he meant to protect his comrade, and shot two sea- 

 gulls by way of illustration. The effect of the poor birds' fate was 

 instantaneous. The islanders, who had never seen a breech-loader 

 before, were filled with amazement, and needed no further 

 warning." An incident, this, which (in character) we might have 

 expected to find in Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle, but hardly in 

 the account of a visit to any part of Great Britain. 



This unfortunate affair was followed by exposure in the boat 

 during the whole night to a gale of wind and pouring rain ; and 

 though he was unwilling to concede that he felt the worse for the 

 adventure, a serious illness overtook him during the autumn ; and 



