A GERMAN VIEW OF THE FAUNA OF IRELAND. 351 
chief hindrance to its progress being the excessive moisture of 
the ground. You find everywhere standing water, ponds, bogs, 
moors, and fields damp and overgrown with rushes and reeds. 
I saw one estate which had, at great expense, been twice drained, 
two feet deep the first time, three feet and a half the second. In 
spite of this the sedges flourished as before, and the turf was damp 
and spongy. ‘T’o make such ground really dry, the drain-pipes 
ought to be at least four feet and a half deep; but, as a great part 
of Ireland lies little above the level of the sea, it would in many 
cases be difficult, where not impossible, to obtain sufficient fall 
for effectual drainage. An enormous expenditure of both capital 
and labour would be required thoroughly to drain the country ; 
large canals would have to be made throughout the land, and the 
work would be far beyond the powers of either owners or occupiers. 
In the parts of Ireland that I visited the cultivation of wheat is 
impracticable; coarse hay and oats only are produced. Conse- 
quently the fodder and manure are of poor quality. The want of 
good land for cultivation causes the absence of good game, and 
thus there is no temptation offered to well-to-do people in search 
of sport. Partridges can hardly be said to exist at all;* Pheasants 
are only found with great difficulty; and should any sportsman 
desire to shoot Snipe and Wild Duck in the bogs, he must verily 
be willing to lead an amphibious life. This absence of game gives 
to country life on one side the Channel a totally different aspect 
from that on the other; a circumstance which contributes largely 
to the want of intercourse—so general and so much to be regretted 
—between the landed aristocracy and the people. 
Ireland being almost entirely unexplored by English natu- 
ralists, its Zoology and Botany may well be made a field of 
research by German naturalists. How much may be learned in a 
short stay is shown by Dr. Arnold von Lasault’s work, ‘ Sketches 
and Studies in the Mineralogy and Geology of Ireland, made in 
August and September, 1876, published at Bonn, 1878. 
But to return to the indigenous animals. With the ancient 
Kerry Cow may be classed the old Irish Deer-hound, also fast 
mye out. * ie . * These hounds were valued by 
_ the Irish chieftains to defend their lake-dwellings (crannoges) 
against Danes and English. Of presents given by the King of 
' * See Thompson, Nat, Hist. Irel., vol. ii. p. 58. 
