d-views harsh and cold, yet the glens and
coves opening into the sea are the charms of Manx scenery, the high
fuchsia-hedges surrounding many of the cottages giving bright coloring
to the landscape when the flowers are in bloom. It is a beautiful place
when once the tourist is able to land there, but the wharf arrangements
are not so good as they might be. Once landed, the visitor usually first
proceeds to solve the great zoological problem the island has long
presented to the outer world, and finds that the Isle of Man does really
possess a breed of tailless cats, whose caudal extremity is either
altogether wanting or at most is reduced to a merely rudimental
substitute.

[Illustration: RHENASS WATERFALL.]

CASTLE RUSHEN.

[Illustration: CASTLE RUSHEN.]

Landing at the capital, Castletown, it is found that it gets its name
from the ancient castle of Rushen, around which the town is built.
Guttred the Dane is said to have built this castle nine hundred years
ago, and to be buried beneath it, although Cardinal Wolsey constructed
the surrounding stone glacis. The keep--into which the prisoners had to
be lowered by ropes--and several parts of the interior buildings remain
almost entire, but repeated sieges so wrecked the other portions that
they have had to be restored. At the castle-entrance were stone chairs
for the governor and judges. It was here that the eminent men who have
ruled the Isle of Man presided, among them being Regulus, who was King
of Man, and the famous Percy, who was attainted of high treason in 1403.
Afterwards it was ruled by the Earls of Derby, who relinquished the
title of king and took that of Lord of Man, holding their sovereignty
until they sold it and the castles and patronage of the island to the
Crown in 1764 for $350,000. With such a history it is natural that
Castle Rushen should have a weird interest attached to it, and the
ancient chroniclers tell of a mysterious apartment within "which has
never been opened in the memory of man." Tradition says that this famous
castle was first inhabited by fairies, and afterwards by the giants,
until Merlin, by his magic power, dislodged most of the giants and bound
the others in spells. In proof of this it is said there are fine
apartments underneath the ground, to explore which several venturesome
persons have gone down, only one of whom ever returned. To save the
lives of the reckless would be explorers, therefore, this mysterious
apartment, wh