62

PASSING DOWN THE LAKES

some points which were not visible from the very summit, and then struck directly down the steep hill-side towards the head of Cwm Duive. The descent occupied exactly three hours of hard walking, from the top to Lord Brandon's cottage, which I reached about five o'clock, and was received with a shout of Milesian welcome, and "Cead mille fealtagh," from my boatmen, who were again beginning to be considerably alarmed at my delay.

They had been kindly permitted to prepare a dinner for me at the cottage; and my morning's walk inclined me to do it immediate and ample justice. I then embarked on my passage down the lakes, just as Night and Day were disputing for empire; it was consequently quite dark before we had escaped from the intricacies of the "Long Range" between the Upper and Lower Lake. We had a patteraro in the boat, with which we disturbed many of the slumbering echoes. The finest, I think, was from a rock, near the Eagle's Cliff, which

is named the "Four Friends," from a tradition of four fellow-collegians having accidentally met and dined upon this islet.

The night was perfectly calm, and the moon, now near the full, shone at times with a brilliance that made one scarce regret the absence of the garish sun; but at other times veiled her light behind a canopy of silver-edged clouds, with an effect that was scarcely less lovely. We all felt the enchantment of the scene: and the oar fell slowly, though regularly, into the water, as if loath to disturb the delicious stillness of that hour.

While sailing beneath the pure beams of this most lovely night, I cannot forbear relating a story connected with the mountain I had this day ascended, and not altogether unknown to some of my friends at Killarney.

When Mr. G. went up Carrân Tual, to make the necessary observations for the Trigonometrical Survey, he was accompanied by several gentlemen of the country, as also by sundry

64

BLACK CURRANT WHISKY.

guides, &c., to convey his instruments and provisions. Amongst the latter was a bottle of black-currant whisky, an excellent and favourite beverage on sporting excursions in Ireland. This bottle had evidently been tampered with, and some of its contents abstracted. The gentleman who observed it mentioned the circumstance to Mr. G., who only said, "Don't say anything about it, and you shall see I'll cure him of meddling with any of my things."

Accordingly, a short time after, when they had nearly reached the top, Mr. G. took up one of his instruments, and, asking for the identical bottle, began carefully to rub the brass with a few drops of the liquid on a piece of linen. The lower orders of the Irish are particularly inquisitive about any thing they see done by their superiors, and they all stood staring round the engineer.

"What is that you are doing, G. ?" said his friend.

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Why, this is one of the most disagreeable

A PILFERER DETECTED.

parts of our profession.

65

When we reach

these great altitudes, we are obliged to rub the instruments with this liquid, which is one of the most active poisons known; and I am therefore, as you see, forced to take particular care, lest any of it touch my hands, or it might have an injurious effect upon my health."

"Och! Captain Charles, what is that Mr. G. says?" exclaimed the delinquent.

"Why, didn't you hear him say he's obliged to take care of the stuff in that bottle, because it's a violent poison ?"

"And is it really poison it is, that's in that same bottle?"

"Poison!" said G., with imperturbable gravity. "I can only tell you that, just before I came upon this expedition, I saw some experiments tried with it upon a very strong bull, and twenty drops killed him in half an hour : a dog died in ten minutes."

"Och! murther! and do you really think that just a thimblefull of it would kill a man?”

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A PILFERER DETECTED.

"A man who had taken that quantity might perhaps live from thirty to forty minutes; but, when once it began to act, he would be dead in a few seconds."

"Och hone! then I'm a dead man, sure enough."

"Why, you don't mean, wretched man, that you have drunk any of that bottle, which I so particularly charged you not to touch!" "Only just a thimblefull, your Honour." "A thimblefull! Then make your peace with your God, for you have not a quarter of an hour to live!"

A priest was of the party, who was not in the secret; and they carried it so far as actually to allow the poor man to be confessed, and be conducted to a point from which he could see the Catholic chapel; and there the priest administered what substitute he could for the Extreme Unction and sacrament for the dying. He then joined with the poisoned man in most earnest supplications to Mr. G., to