68 Scenery and Antiquities of 



pictured. It differs widely from the districts in Mayo and 

 Galway, both in its appearance and people. Many Crom- 

 wellian soldiers were settled in County Sligo as the border 

 county of Connaught. They were mostly of English descent, 

 and they introduced improved methods of farming, which are 

 visible to the present day. Lough Gill, close by Sligo town, 

 is a charming lake five miles long, by about a mile and a half 

 wide. It contains several well wooded islands, and the ruins 

 of an ancient Celtic Church on one. It is surrounded on 

 almost every side by high mountains, which give it quite the 

 appearance of Killarney, but on a smaller scale. The arbutus 

 grows in Hazlewood Demesne on the northern side of the lake, 

 the hills of Cleveragh, overlooking lake and river, are also finely 

 wooded. There is a holy well and altar at Tober Nalt on the 

 margin of the lake, where a pattern is held on the last Sunday 

 in July called Garland Sunday. The river Garvogue, which 

 discharges the surplus waters of the lake, is the earliest salmon 

 river in Ireland, as fishing commences on the ist of January, 

 when the fish are found to be in prime order. The Owenmore 

 that empties into Ballysodare Bay very close to the Sligo 

 river, strange to say, is fully three months later. The rapids 

 and falls of the latter river at Ballysodare are very fine, par- 

 ticularly when the river is in flood. For several hundred yards 

 the rapids extend from the bridge towards the sea, and finally 

 tumble over a fine fall, and are lost in the bay. Glencar Lake, 

 on the northern side of Sligo, some ten miles distant, lies right 

 under the Benbulbin Mountains ; it contains two crannoges, or 

 artificial islands, which in ancient times were used as strong- 

 holds. Bronze and stone implements have been found in 

 them, also great quantities of bones of the red deer, ox, goat, 

 and other animals. There is a celebrated waterfall at Glencar, 

 with the peculiar feature that when the wind blows strong 

 from a point in front of it the water seems to rise up the face 

 of the mountain and is lost in spray. The visitor to Glencar 

 can return to Sligo by the village of DrumclifF, founded by St. 

 Columba. It possesses a beautiful sculptured cross and a per- 



