140 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



may, without much difficulty, be traced ; and many 

 a wonder-stricken fisherman imagined himself watching 

 the movements of a mermaid, while all the time he was 

 only staring at a sea-calf. 



A whimsical instance of the credulity of the peasantry 

 was mentioned by my kinsman. Some years ago a 

 party engaged in a fishing excursion on the coast came-to 

 in Achil Sound, and, leaving the boat, took up their 

 quarters for the night in the priest's house, which was 

 situated in a neighbouring village. One of the company 

 was hunch-backed, with a face of singular and grotesque 

 expression. Having indulged gloriously over-night in 

 the native beverage, which the honest priest most 

 liberally supplied, the little gentleman found himself 

 rather amiss in the morning, and determined to try 

 what salutary effect the cool sea-breeze might have upon 

 the fever- warmth his nocturnal revelry had raised. 

 He left the cabin accordingly, and the early hour, 

 with the islanders' celebrity for a simplicity of costume, 

 induced him to postpone the business of the toilet to a 

 more convenient season, and to sally forth in perfect 

 dishabille. For a time he straggled along the shore, 

 until reaching the point of land which forms the entrance 

 of Achil Sound, he selected a smooth stone, and deposited 

 his person among the rocks, to meditate the hour away, 

 before whose expiry he could not expect that breakfast 

 would be paraded in the cabin. 



It was dead low-water. Half-a-dozen row-boats, 

 bound for the Fair of Newport, and filled with men and 

 women, were rowing merrily to the Bull's Mouth, 

 intending to enter it upon the first of flood. Having 

 approached close to the spot where the little gentleman 

 was ensconsed among the seaweed, up popped an 



