ves they had really seen the Enchanted Island. For once
there was a topic of conversation that would outlast the day, and as the
story of the Enchanted Island passed from lip to lip, both story and
island grew in size till the latter was little less than a continent,
containing cities and castles, palaces and cathedrals, towers and
steeples, stupendous mountain ranges, fertile valleys, and wide spreading
plains; while the former was limited only by the patience of the listener,
and embraced the personal experience, conclusions, reflections, and
observations of every man, woman, and child in the parish who had been
fortunate enough to see the island, hear of it, or tell where it had been
seen elsewhere.

For the Enchanted Island of the west coast is not one of those ordinary,
humdrum islands that rise out of the sea in a night, and then, having
come, settle down to business on scientific principles, and devote their
attention to the collection of soil for the use of plants and animals. It
disdains any such commonplace course as other islands are content to
follow, but is peripatetic, or, more properly, seafaring, in its habits,
and as fond of travelling as a sailor. At its own sweet will it comes,
and, having shown itself long enough to convince everybody who is not an
"innocent entirely" of its reality, it goes without leave-taking or
ceremony, and always before boats can approach near enough to make a
careful inspection. This is the invariable history of its appearance. No
one has ever been able to come close to its shores, much less land upon
them, but it has been so often seen on the west coast, that a doubt of its
existence, if expressed in the company of coast fishermen, will at once
establish for the sceptic a reputation for ignorance of the common affairs
of every-day life.

In Cork, for instance, it has been seen by hundreds of people off
Ballydonegan Bay, while many more can testify to its appearance off the
Bay of Courtmacsherry. In Kerry, all the population of Ballyheige saw it a
few years ago, lying in Tralee Bay, between Kerry Head and Brandon's Head,
and shortly before, the villagers of Lisneakeabree, just across the bay
from Ballyheige, saw it between their shore and Kerry Head, while the
fishermen in Saint Finan's Bay and in Ballinskelligs are confident it has
been seen, if not by themselves, at least by some of their friends. It has
appeared at the mouth of the Shannon, and off Carrigaholt in Clare, whe