THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



No. 39.] MARCH, MDCCCLXVII. [Price 6d. 



Irish Insect-Hunting Grounds. By Edwin Birchall, Esq. 

 II. Galway. 



From Dublin to Galway the rail lies across the central 

 limestone plain of Ireland : although the formation known as 

 mountain limestone, it presents none of those long lines of 

 hills and scars which characterize it in England, and from 

 which it derives its name ; and until, at Athlone, very nearly 

 in the geographical centre of Ireland, the Shannon is reached, 

 there is little to be seen but dead levels of pasture and bog. 



The Shannon at Athlone, 130 miles from the sea, is almost 

 as wide as the Thames at London, but there the resemblance 

 ends ; a solitary turf-boat is probably the only moving thing 

 on the surface of the great Irish river, and its banks are over- 

 looked not by gigantic warehouses, but by long lines of forti- 

 fication, bristling with cannon and manned by an English 

 garrison. The contrast with busy England jars painfully at 

 first ; there is a feeling of regret at seeing such great natural 

 sources of wealth neglected, and the noble river allowed to 

 flow past without paying toll in the shape of work ; but I am 

 not sure that reflection quite confirms these ideas. Are we 

 right to consider a river as only so much water-power, or 

 what is called "a highway for commerce ? " Stand on the 

 bridge at Galway, under which the stream from Loch Corrib 

 rushes, and you may see the salmon lying motionless in the. 

 depths far below. Repeat the process on the bridge at Leeds 

 or Manchester : dead dogs and cats are what you will pro- 

 bably see, and those only the floating ones, for the inky 

 stream conceals the nameless horrors of its bed. Will any 

 number of dye-houses or tan-yards balance the account ? 

 Would Ireland or the human race be any better or happier if 

 Athlone were another Manchester, and Galway a second 

 Liverpool } their streets swarming with savage, squalid, 

 heathen " hands," forced into existence by the power of 

 VOL. III. R 



