III. A Fiscal Division, comprehending the following Collections:

Armagh

Dublin City

Lisburn

Athlone

Baltimore

Strangford Tralee Trim

Cavan

Clonmell

Coleraine

Galway

Cork

Dingle

Drogheda

Limerick

Strabane

A late melancholy event on the coast of Ireland* induces me, before I conclude this chapter, to say a few words in regard to the errors of former maps, which have been constructed chiefly from the observations of Mackenzie, published in a thin quarto volume. This gentleman lays down the river Shannon in a wrong position, and in this he has been followed by the surveyors appointed to construct a chart of it, and draw up a report for the use of the Irish parliament; a task which they evidently performed, by copying the blunders of their blundering precursor, without giving themselves the trouble to make a single observation. These, and similar mistakes, have caused many fatal accidents at sea, as will appear from the following paper; a copy of which is furnished by the Admiralty to every commander of His Majesty's ships.

"HYDROGRAPHICAL-OFFICE, ADMIRALTY, November 30, 1801.

"Remarks on the south-west and north-west coasts of Ireland, by Thomas George Shortland, lieutenant in His Majesty's ship Melpomene, communicated by Sir Thomas Troubridge, Bart.

"On making Dursey Island, off Bantry Bay, I observed with one of Ramsden's

The loss of the Saldanha frigate.

best sextants, and found the latitude of the south-east end of it 51° 37' N.; and being off there for three successive days, I found it the same; and every quadrant in the ship agreed within a mile or two of my observation.

Sailing still on, past the Skelligs and Blasquets; next day I observed, off the mouth of the Shannon, and found Loop Head to be in 52° 37′, Kerry Head 52° 30', and Brandon Head 52° 22′. I was off there five or six days, and had excellent observations.

"From the Shannon we had not any opportunity of seeing the land, until we were off Urris Head, the latitude of which I made to be 54° 28' N. From between Dursey Island and Urris Head, is laid down from 10' to 12' to the southward of the truth.

"The danger from this is, that should a ship, proceeding to the Shannon, get a good observation, and run in the parallel of 52° 24', or 52° 26′; if thick weather afterwards came on, she would, instead of making the entrance of the Shannon, or Loop Head, run into Brandon or Tralee Bay; and should it blow hard to the west-north-west, or west, that she could not weather round Kerry Head, the consequence would be dreadful, from the heavy sea and foul ground in both these places. "From the observations I made, the same would hold good in running either for Bantry, or any other place on the south-west and west coast of Ireland. I find that the York Indiaman was wrecked in Tralee Bay, Oct. 29, 1758. 'At seven A. M. Oct. 29, 1758, it blowing hard, bore away for the Shannon. At noon latitude, by a good observation, 52° 28′, which is by my chart and books the latitude of Loop Head. Stood on till two o'clock, and then discovered that the entrance must be wrong laid down; as by the form of the land in sight, it must be Tralee Bay. It still blowing hard, and running in for the land, the ship struck and was wrecked.' The captain observes,' That had the entrance of the river Shannon been laid down in 52° 36′, which is the truth, and not 52° 24′, the York Indiaman would not have been lost.'

"I have every reason to believe that the latitude of Cape Clear is right, and that the error begins at Mizen Head. Cape Tiellen, the northern point of Donegal Bay, is right laid down; but Urris Head, the southern point, is 10' to the southward of the truth. Donegal Bay, therefore, is not so wide by ten miles, as it is laid down in the charts. A. DALRYMPLE,

The late Admiral Drury made a survey of the coasts and harbours of Ireland, but it has never been published. It is said to have been carried away by some lordlieutenant on his leaving the country.

As the following glossary, or explanation of some of those words which most

frequently occur in composition, with the names of places in Ireland, may render these names more intelligible to an English reader, I have taken the liberty of copying it from Dr. Beaufort's Memoir.*

Agh, a field.

Anagh, or Ana, a river.

Ard, a high place or rising ground.

Ath, a ford.

Awin, a river.

Don, a height or fastness, a fortress.
Donagh, a church.

Drom, a high narrow ridge of hills.
Inch, Inis, an island.

Ken, a head.

Bally, or Ballin, a town or inclosed place Kill, a church or cemetery.

of habitation.

Ban, or Bane, white or fair.

Beg, little.

Knock, a single hill or a hillock.

Lick, a flat stone.

Lough, a lake or a pool.

Ben, the summit of a mountain, generally Magh, a plain.

an abrupt head.

Bun, a bottom, a foundation or root.

Car, or Cahir, a city.

Main, a collection of hillocks.

More, large or great.

Rath, a mount or entrenchment, a barrow.

Carrick, Garrig, Carrow, a rock or stony Ross, a point of land projecting into place.

waters.

Cork, Corragh, a marsh or swampy ground. Shan, old.

Sliebh, a range of mountain, a hill covered

with heath.

Tack, a house.

Temple, a church.

Tom, Toom, a bush.
Tra, a strand.

Tobar, Tubber, a well or spring.
Tullagh, a gentle hill, a common.
Tully, a place subject to floods.

* Memoir of a Map of Ireland, p. 146.

THE promontory of the Fair Head, in Antrim, is by many considered as the most northerly part of Ireland; though the extreme point in that direction is evidently Malin Head, in Donegal. The Fair Head, of which I shall have occasion to speak more particularly hereafter, consists of high land, as does also the greater part of the shore of Antrim. Pursuing the country southwards, the mountains of Mourne, which divide the county of Down, appear of considerable height; but to the south of these, and of the Fews in Armagh, the country sinks into a flat, which stretches out to a great length across the counties of Louth, Meath, Dublin, Kildare, and Carlow.

The county of Wicklow is an assemblage of granite mountains, extending to Mount Leinster, and the range of hills called the Blackstairs, which, dividing Wexford from Wicklow and Carlow, continue to the Brandon Hills in Kilkenny; and crossing the barony of Idagh in that county, may be traced to the Knockmeledown ridge, which stand on that side of the Suir next to the county of Waterford, and thence to the Galtees, which divide Cork from the county of Limerick. They may be afterwards traced in a south-westerly direction, till they spread out towards Cape Clear, and are found in the chain of mountains projecting into the sea between Bantry Bay and Kenmare River; and, on the banks of that large arm of the sea in the barony of Iveragh, and in M'Gillycuddy's Reeks in Kerry, which is the highest land in Ireland. The general direction of these heights is from east to west, but without forming a continued ridge. T Turning the eye once more north, and pursuing the western coast, the shore of Donegal presents a mountainous appearance, with an internal ridge running across the county from Tiellen Head.

To the south of Lough Erne, there is a continued line of high mountains, which runs in a direction parallel to that inland sea.

Leitrim is exceedingly mountainous, and in Mayo, Nephin, and Crow Patrick, rear their lofty summits to a very great elevation. It is asserted by some, that Crow Patrick is the highest ground in the island.

In the interior, the Sliebhbloom mountains divide the King's and Queen's counties from each other, and form a great chain, which deserves particular notice; nor ought the heights between Carlow and Castle Connel to be omitted.

Monaghan, Cavan, Tyrone, the northern shore of Lough Erne and Westmeath, are all rugged and uneven, but contain no heights that deserve the name of mountains, with the exception of Knock Ton; or, at any rate, none that would be

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considered as such by an Englishman; for the Irish sometimes apply that appellation to flat land, if it be naked and barren.*

A great part of Tipperary and Limerick consists of rich calcareous flats; and; from the north of them, may be traced the great bog of Allen, which stretching through the King's and Queen's Counties, and also Kildare, extends almost to Dublin.

There is no county in Ireland without some vales of luxuriant soil; and the northern part of Limerick, Clare, and a large portion of Galway and Roscommon, exhibit one continued bed of lime-stone.

One of the natural marks which divide Ireland, is the Shannon; it separates Connaught and the county of Clare from the rest of the kingdom; and in two places at Lough Derg above Limerick, and Lough Reagh above Athlone, this noble stream expands into vast sheets of water.

Lough Neagh in the north-east, lying between the counties of Antrim, Down, Armagh, Tyrone, and Londonderry, occupies an extent of 173 English square miles.+ Lough Erne, which intersects Fermanagh, 85; and Lough Carrib, in Galway, 73. Numerous other lakes are to be found in Ireland, but they are inferior to these in magnitude. The Nore, the Barrow, and the Suir, all have their efflux at the same place in the south.

Could Dr. Johnson have been prevailed on to make the tour of Ireland, it would, no doubt, have drawn from him the same sarcastic remark as that which he made in regard to Scotland. The whole island is remarkably bare of trees, and exhibits a naked appearance; which is more striking to a traveller, whose eye has been familiarised to the woody counties of England. Yet the varied aspect arising from the frequency of sea-views, combined with the rude but grand scenery of the mountains, and the different tints they assume according to their distance, produce a number of beautiful and diversified prospects, some of which I shall hereafter describe.

* Boate, in his Natural History of Ireland, speaking of the distinction between mountains and hills, says, p. 80, Lond. edit. 1652: "The English language useth one and the same word for both, calling hills, as well the one as the other, without any other distinction; but sometimes the word small or great is added. Now because this word so indifferently used, would cause some confusion in the matter we treat of, this hath made us restrain it to one of the sorts, and to call hills only the lesser sort, called in Latin collis, in French colline, in Dutch heuvel, and in Irish knock. As for the other and bigger sort, whose name, in the aforesaid four languages, is mons, berg, and slew, we call them mountains; which word mountains, although it be good English, yet in common speech it is seldom made use of in that sense whereunto we apply it, but only to signify a country wholly consisting of more great hills, especially where the soil thereof is lean and unfruitful."

+ According to Arrowsmith's map.

"He, I know not why, shewed, upon all occasions, an aversion to go to Ireland, where I proposed to him that we should make a tour." Boswell's Life of Johnson, vol. iii. p. 440.