DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 205 



CHAPTER XX 



FROM DUGORT TO CLARE ISLAND — 'WHERE TROUBLES 

 DO NOT COME AND RATES ARE NEVER PAID* 



Our two days and three nights stay at the Slieve- 

 more Hotel was made very comfortable by the hostess, 

 and a more jolly man than the host, or one more 

 capable of guiding his guests to what they seek, it 

 would be hard to find; indeed, the only fault he 

 seemed to have was inability to obhge his fishing 

 guests with the rain they so sorely needed. 



Our plan was to go from Dugort to Clare Island, 

 via the coast, to where we could get a boat to take us 

 over. As the car stage of this journey was eighteen 

 Irish miles, with no certainty of a boat when at the 

 end of it, we determined on a somewhat early start 

 that we might have a reserve of time to meet that 

 or any other difficulty. It would have been easy to 

 go by train to Westport and from there by boat, but 

 we wanted the drive, which would take us past so 

 many miles of old-world scenes that probably would 

 well repay us for the time it would take. 



The mist that shut us in at starting thinned and 

 then disappeared, leaving us with the commencement 

 of a glorious Autumn day that coloured all we saw 

 in cheerful hues. The portions of the drive that wound 

 out and in to meet the widenings and narrowings of 

 Achill Sound gave us constantly varying pictures of 

 land and water, the former filled with busy life. Cabins 

 were sprinkled plentifully where the land had earth 

 to till, showing (as is plain everywhere in this country) 

 the love the Irish have for making the most of even the 

 smallest bit of ground. Struggles for bare existence 

 were often manifest, while fallen roofs and bulging 



