Autumnal Rovings. 191 



money will not be thrown away. I believe most or many of 

 the people who visit the Giant's Causeway confess to a little 

 disappointment ; they do not find the sensation they had 

 been promised. For this, as usual, they have to thank the 

 extravagant language of guide books and their own confiding 

 faith in it. Then, finding the reality not equal to the 

 warmly-coloured picture, it is perhaps natural that they 

 should fall into the other extreme and become unjust. I 

 met an American gentleman to-day who had spent half an 

 hour at the Causeway, scanning it from a distance, and who 

 was returning to the States convinced that the whole affair 

 was erected by'some speculators of a bygone period. It is 

 true the first glimpse of the Giant's Causeway will not take 

 away your breath with amazement, but for all that if you 

 conduct your explorations with diligence and care, even 

 though you may be no geologist and not able to distinguish 

 greenstone from basalt, calcareous spar from quartz, lias from 

 chalk, or trap from ochre, you shall soon admit that wonder- 

 ful indeed are the works around you. 



Do not attempt to argue with the legion of beggars and 

 touts who will beset you. Never lose your temper; they 

 do not intend to devour you piecemeal, although at first 

 you may be pardoned for supposing such to be their dia- 

 bolical purpose. At Portrush they will swoop down upon 

 you at the railway station, and at the Causeway they will 

 give you no peace. The only method of dealing with these 

 nuisances is to maintain a masterly and good-humoured 

 silence, although, if you can do it adroitly, it is good sport 

 to lead your besieger on to suppose — a mere smile, or the 

 appearance of attention to the fellow will do it — that you 

 will yield, and then having trotted him over a mile of ground, 

 simply ignore him. There would, no doubt, be a little 

 language in the neighbourhood, but the badgered stranger 



