ely lifted to daylight, or,
as it is termed by miners, "to grass."

The water now rose in the shaft, and, as it is called, "drowned the
works" but, by the main strength of 1250 men, 200 horses, and thirteen
steam-engines, not only was the work gradually completed, but, during
day and night for eight months, the almost incredible quantity of 1800
gallons of water per minute was raised, and conducted away. The time
occupied from the laying of the first brick to the completion was thirty
months.

[Illustration: DEEP CUTTING NEAR THE TUNNEL.]

* * * * *

SUN FISH.

While lying in Little Killery Bay, on the coast of Connemara, in her
Majesty's surveying ketch _Sylvia_, we were attracted by a large fin
above the surface, moving with an oscillatory motion, somewhat
resembling the action of a man sculling at the stern of a boat; and
knowing it to be an unusual visitor, we immediately got up the harpoon
and went in chase. In the meantime, a country boat came up with the poor
animal, and its crew inflicted upon it sundry blows with whatever they
could lay their hands on--oars, grappling, stones, &c.--but were
unsuccessful in taking it; and it disappeared for some few minutes, when
it again exhibited its fin on the other side of the Bay. The dull and
stupid animal permitted us to place our boat immediately over it, and
made no effort to escape. The harpoon never having been sharpened,
glanced off without effect; but another sailor succeeded in securing it
by the tail with a boat-hook, and passing the bight of a rope behind its
fins, we hauled it on shore, under Salrock House, the residence of
General Thompson, who, with his family, came down to inspect this
strange-looking inhabitant of the sea. We were well soused by the
splashing of its fins, ere a dozen hands succeeded in transporting this
heavy creature from its native abode to the shore, where it passively
died, giving only an occasional movement with its fins, or uttering a
kind of grunt.

[Illustration: SIDE VIEW OF SUN FISH.]

[Illustration: FRONT VIEW OF SUN FISH.]

This animal, I believe, is a specimen of the Sun-fish (_Orthagoriscus_).
It has no bony skeleton; nor did we, in our rather hasty dissection,
discover any osseous structure whatever, except (as we were informed by
one who afterwards inspected it) that there was one which stretched
between the large fins. Its jaws also had bony terminations, unbroken
into teeth,