272 THE FOWLER IN IRELAND. 



reading these lines who may happen to have an 

 old discarded book pertaining to fish and fowl, 

 would, by sending it to any one of the stations 

 hereinafter mentioned, confer a blessing, and bestow 

 a gift more precious than a gold piece of the realm. 

 When lighthouses are built on rocks several miles 

 from land, as many are on the west coast of Ireland, 

 they are often unapproachable even in the fairest 

 weather, though at a distance the sea may appear 

 perfectly smooth. Stepping ashore is no easy 

 matter, and often highly dangerous. Vast undulating 

 rollers will now and then come heaving shoreward 

 from the horizon, generally three in succession, 

 paying a visit when least expected, and so suddenly, 

 that men and boats have been swept beyond 

 recovery in a few moments. 



These dangerous waves are supposed to arise from 

 some far-off disturbance of wind and water, the 

 outer ripples of which but reach the land. A yet 

 more strange occurrence, and one not very un- 

 frequent, is a quick upheaval of the sea several feet 

 (I have seen as much as eight in a few minutes), 

 then as sudden a fall. This will happen on the 

 brightest of summer days, in a glassy calm, without 

 any previous motion of warning,* and before boats 



* Smith, in his "History of Kerry," 1756, alludes to the prodigious 

 noise made by the sea at certain seasons on this coast, like the firing 

 of distant cannon, and which, he says, can be heard a long way, adding, 

 this usually indicates a storm or change of weather ; furthermore, that 

 a murmuring as well as this roaring noise can be often heard all along 

 the lower part of the Shannon near its mouth. He also says that 

 during the continuance of these noises, the surface of the water is 

 sometimes elevated in a most unusual manner. " I can vouch for the 

 subdued rumbling of the sea on many parts of the west coast, though 

 it may be calm as glass, and it is a well-known warning to fishermen 



