ts record of woe upon the poor child's countenance. I could
bear no more; and we returned to Skibbereen, after having been all the
afternoon among these abodes of misery. On our way we overtook the cart
with the two uncoffined bodies. The man and young woman were all that
attended them to the grave. Last year the funeral of either would have
called out hundreds of mourners from those hills. But now the husband
drove his uncoffined wife to the grave without a tear in his eye,
without a word of sorrow. About half way to Skibbereen, Dr. H----
proposed that we should diverge to another road to visit a cabin in
which we should find two little girls living alone, with their dead
mother, who had lain unburied seven days. He gave an affecting history
of this poor woman; and we turned from the road to visit this new scene
of desolation; but as it was growing quite dark, and the distance was
considerable, we concluded to resume our way back to the village. In
fact I had witnessed as much as my heart could bear. In the evening I
met several gentlemen at the house of Mr. S----, among whom was Dr.
D----. He had just returned from a neighbouring parish, where he visited
a cabin which had been deserted by the poor people around, although it
was known that some of its inmates were still alive, though dying in the
midst of the dead. He knocked at the door; and hearing no voice within,
burst it open, with his foot; and was, in a moment almost overpowered by
the horrid stench. Seeing a man's legs protruding from the straw, he
moved them slightly with his foot; when a husky voice asked for water.
In another part of the cabin, on removing a piece of canvas, he
discovered three dead bodies, which had lain there _unburied for the
fortnight_; and hard against one of these, and almost embraced in the
arms of death, lay a young person far gone with fever. He related other
cases too horrible to be published.

ELIHU BURRITT.

PRINTED BY J. W. SHOWELL, TEMPLE-STREET, BIRMINGHAM.

Transcriber's Note:

Hyphenation has been standardised. Minor typographical errors have
been corrected without note, whilst more significant errors have
been listed below:

Page 3, 'indescrible' amended to _indescribable_.

Page 11, 'delapidated' amended to _dilapidated_.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Journal of a Visit of Three Days to
Skibbereen, and its Ne