178 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



lure is preserved, as upon any peculiarity of constitution. Of 

 game-cocks I saw none. The inhuman sport, which once 

 brought these animals into fashion, is, as far as I can learn, now 

 not permitted nor known. The cause of humanity has certainly 

 accomplished much in the abolition of the cruel games of cock- 

 fighting, dog-fighting, bull-baiting, and bloody boxing-matches. 

 The various military dresses, most brilliant and magnificent as 

 they were in themselves, and which were seen plentifully 

 sprinkled about the show-yard, and in the streets of Dublin, indi 

 cated, however, that there were other game-cocks in training, for 

 purposes far more cruel and unchristian, whom, with their glitter 

 ing swords and bristling bayonets, I seldom pass without a 

 shudder : and to the necessity, if there be any, of whose profes 

 sion and employment, I can only desire as speedy and as effec 

 tual an end may be put. The fights of the lower orders of 

 animals, for which they have been trained, and to which they 

 have been spurred on by the brutality of a higher order of ani 

 mals, assuming to be rational and moral, are, alas ! but a melan 

 choly counterpart of scenes which have covered human history 

 all over with blood, and stained its pages with crimes of a demo 

 niacal malignity and revenge, vulgarly, and by a misnomer which, 

 in a Christian country, makes one s heart ache, called heroism 

 and glory. The native race of cows, principally from the county 

 of Kerry, which were exhibited on the occasion, was quite re 

 markable. They are much smaller than any thing of the kind 

 which I have ever seen, and can have little value out of the 

 country where they are reared, and to whose scanty pastures and 

 bleak hills they are said to be peculiarly adapted. They are 

 generally black, kept at a very small expense, and are said, for 

 their size, to yield an extraordinary amount of milk. A bull of 

 a year old of this stock, to which a prize of five sovereigns was 

 awarded, was so diminutive, that I could, without difficulty, have 

 lifted my leg over his back. The sight of this animal solved a 

 problem in history which has always puzzled me. It is said of 

 Milo, that, beginning with a calf, and carrying him upon his 

 back every day, the increase of weight was so gradual, that the 

 limit of his personal strength could not be determined, and he 

 continued to lift him after he became an ox. If it were a Kerry 

 ox, the otherwise intrinsic improbability of the story entirely 

 ceases. This Kerry bull was little larger than a goat, and should 



