136 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



and wonder of their poorer neighbours. Their wealth 

 consisted of a flock of sheep, when, unfortunately, 

 some trifling dispute occurring between them, a disso- 

 lution of partnership was resolved upon. To divide 

 the flock, one would suppose, would not be difficult, 

 and they proceeded to partition the property accord- 

 ingly. They possessed one hundred and one sheep ; 

 fifty fell to each proprietor, but the odd one — how was 

 it to be disposed of ? Neither would part with his 

 moiety to the other, and after a long and angry nego- 

 tiation, the animal was left in common property between 

 them. Although the season had not come round when 

 sheep are usually shorn, one of the proprietors, requiring 

 wool for a pair of stockings, proposed that the fleece 

 should be taken off. This was resisted by his co-partner, 

 and the point was finally settled by shearing one side 

 of the animal. Only a few days after the sheep was 

 found dead in a deep ditch ; one party ascribed the 

 accident to the cold feelings of the animal having urged 

 him to seek a shelter in the fatal trench ; while the 

 other contended that the wool remaining upon one side 

 had caused the wether to lose its equilibrium, and thus 

 the melancholy catastrophe was occasioned. The 

 parties went to law directly, and the expenses of the suit 

 actually devoured the produce of the entire flock, and 

 reduced both to a state of utter beggary. Their descen- 

 dants are pointed out to this day as being the poorest 

 of the community, and litigants are frequently warned 

 to avoid the fate of " M alley a?id M alone'' 



Notwithstanding the uncertainty of weather in Inniskea 

 is proverbial, we had no reason to complain. The sun 

 rose gloriously from the ocean — every cloud vanished 

 from the rocky pinnacle of Slieve More — a stiff breeze 



