MELLOW ENGLAND. 



139 



climbed those dark unstable mountains, my mind re- 

 verted feebly to Huxley's statement, that the bottom 

 of this sea, for over a thousand miles, presents to the 

 eye of science a vast chalk plain, over which one might 

 drive as over a floor, and I tried to solace myself by 

 dwelling upon the spectacle of a solitary traveller whip- 

 ping up his steed across it. The imaginary rattle of 

 his wagon was like the sound of lutes and harps, and 

 I would rather have clung to his axletree than been 

 rocked in the best berth in the ship. 



LAND. 



On the tenth day, about four o'clock in the afternoon, 

 we sighted Ireland, The ship came up from behind 

 the horizon where for so many days she had been buf- 

 feting with the winds and the waves, but had never 

 lost the clew, bearing straight as an arrow for the mark. 

 I think if she had been aimed at a fair sized artillery 

 target, she w T ould have crossed the ocean and struck 

 the bull's eye. 



In Ireland, instead of an emerald isle rising out of 

 the sea, I beheld a succession of cold, purplish moun- 

 tains, stretching along the northeastern horizon, but I 

 am bound to say that no tints of bloom or verdure 

 were ever half so welcome to me as were those dark, 

 heather-clad ranges. It is a feeling which a man can 

 have but once in his life, when he first sets eyes upon 

 a foreign land, and in my case, to this feeling was 

 added the delightful thought that the " devil's hole " 

 would soon be cleared and my long fast over. 



