96 TAEBERT TO LISTOWEL — TURF TRAFFIC. 



The fever broke out on board ; he tended the sick, and 

 caught the fever himself, from which, after being in great 

 danger, he fortunately recovered. After landing the 

 people, he accompanied them up the country, remained 

 with them till they were fairly set a-going, and then 

 returned home. 



Leaving Mount Trenchard next morning, I proceeded 

 through Kerry to Tralee. From Tarbert to Listowel 

 the country is high, bleak, and unpromising. There are 

 numerous huts along the road on the edge of the bog, 

 and from these an active traffic was going on, by men 

 carrying loads of turf on their backs to Tarbert for sale. 

 Each load at present brings only a halfpenny. The 

 poor creatures manage to go two or three times a day, 

 according to their distance from town, bringing back 

 Indian meal with their money. Such a traffic as this 

 would not be persisted in if the people had any wish to 

 go to the workhouse. I was told by a man who had 

 been an inmate of it for some time, that the food is 

 sometimes insufficiently cooked, and too small a quantity 

 given, and that they all would rather be half-starved at 

 home than enter its walls. 



At Listowel the river Feale is crossed by a handsome 

 bridge, and the valley of the river is fertile and pictu- 

 resque, though miserably cultivated. The good land 

 continues for some miles further towards Tralee, when 

 the road again ascends into bleak bog. Within about 

 two miles of Tralee a great traffic was being carried on 

 from the bog, by donkeys in carts and with panniers, 

 and by people — men, women, girls, and boys — all carry- 

 ing burdens of turf on their backs to the market. Here 



