30 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



numerous and profitable islands attached, and an 

 immense line of seacoast, possessing rich fisheries, 

 and abounding in kelp-weed and manure ! And why 

 was this neglect ? Were the proprietors of this deserted 

 district so cold to that true spring of human action, self- 

 aggrandizement, as to omit providing an outlet for the 

 sources of their opulence ? Were there no public monies 

 allocated to these abandoned corners of the earth, and 

 so much lavishly expended on many a useless under- 

 taking elsewhere ? Yes : large sums had been presented 

 and re-presented by the Grand Juries for the last twenty 

 years, but they have been regularly pocketed by those 

 to whose good faith they were entrusted. Would it 

 be believed in England, George, that this atrocious 

 system of peculation has been carried to such an extent 

 that roads have been passed as completed when their 

 lines have been but roughly marked out and bridges 

 been actually paid for, the necessary accounting affi- 

 davits having been sworn to in open court, when not a 

 stone was ever laid, and to this day the stream runs 

 without a solitary arch to span its flood from the source 

 to the debouchement ? Ay these delinquencies have 

 been often and notoriously perpetrated, and none have 

 had the courage to drag the criminals to justice. 



At the clachan of Mulranny we struck into a pass 

 in the mountains, and turned our backs upon Clew Bay. 

 A branch from the waters of Black Sod runs some ten 

 miles inland, and meets this opening in the hills, 

 affording a communication by boats with Erris. There 

 my kinsman's galley was waiting for me, and in it I 

 embarked my person and establishment. Taking 

 advantage of a south-westerly wind, the boatmen hoisted 

 their close-reefed lug, and away we shot rapidly towards 



