he former, although eating everything offered
them, became miserably poor in a comparatively short time. The only
denizen of the pool that I actually saw was a lobster, who came out
from under a stone as I approached, in the hope, I was told, that I
was going to give him a mussel.

Mr. Bland, however, if he has not proved so redoubtable a fishtamer as
my original informant opined, has proved very successful in oyster
culture. Having a little salt-water inlet, with a river running into
it, he conceived the idea of breeding and raising oysters, but found
the climate bad for "spatting," and now buys his tiny young oysters by
the ten thousand at the Isle of Rhe, and puts them down in long
perforated boxes on his oyster beds. When they are between three and
four years old he consigns them to a correspondent at Ballyvaughan,
who puts them in, I believe, deep-sea oyster beds for a while and
converts them into the famous Burren oysters, which, like the Marenne
oysters, are generally preferred by Englishmen to "Natives," while the
"spat" of the latter is eagerly sought by the French for development
into Huitres d'Ostende.

It rained so furiously at Derryquin that I hardly saw so much of Mr.
Bland's estate as I could have wished, but between the showers I was
able to form a fair idea of his building and road improvement. It is a
matter of pride to the proprietor that on a territory once impassable
by a wheeled vehicle he can now drive to every farm in a carriage and
pair, and that among tenants averaging "the grass of six cows" apiece;
men and women at least speak English, and children go to school. The
barbarous state of the country and inhabitants forty years ago may be
gathered from the following anecdote. Two gentlemen were out shooting
on the mountain and were driven by a "Kerry shower"--which is as much
like a cataract as anything I know of--into a peasant's cabin. The man
received them with all the dignity and self-possession peculiar to the
best of his class, and when the storm cleared off invited them to eat
with him on their return from the hillside. When they came back,
expecting only potatoes and butter, they were astounded to see their
host take several pieces of some kind of meat out of the pot and place
them on the table, for there were no plates before them. It turned out
that the mysterious meat was that of a newly-born calf whose dam was
yet lying helpless in a corner of the cabin. The man was quite
unconsciou