From Portland To Bantry Bay In One Of Her Majesty's Ironclads.

them . Now it is the rattling of chains somewhere—now the pattering of feet over head , as the watch on deck runs away to give a pull here and a haul' there—now for a few minutes there is a cessation from above , which causes the throbbing of the engines , and the deep hollow grinding made by the revolving screw , to become real ancl tangible noises once more , but dreamy and monotonous ones lulling me off—then there is the screech of a fog whistle , the rattle of the ash engine , and finally such a scrubbing and

scraping over head as proclaims it the morning deck-cleaning , or what sailors term holystoning , though I cannot get any one to explain the term more fully than " ancient custom , " " time immemorial , " ete . On the next morning I was roused early to get a view of Erin ' s Isle , and about 8 a . m . we steamed slowly up to the anchorage inside Bear Island . The scenery was very rugged : on one side rocky hills rose abruptly from the water's edge , hiding their

summits in the overhanging mists that Eke a pall cover their beauties— " week in , week out , " I am told . The island side is not so precipitous . On the mainland the culminating point is Hungry Hill—a name apropos , one Woidd fancy , from the aspect of its lower extremities . I did not stay long enough to make acquaintance with the top , as I had to make arrangements for returning to England by rail ; still I had one or two pleasant clays with II—— , rambling amongst the mossy glades ancl grassy sloping tracts

that gently lead up to the hills in the background . Emerging one afternoon into the high road to Castletown , distant about three Irish miles , we found horses' -of all sizes and ages awaiting the sailors from the fleet , while for those who cared not to cut a figure on horseback there were the far-famed jaunting cars . We availed ourselves of the services of one of the latter , ancl were soon taking in as much of the grandly rugged scenery as was allowed by the break-neck pace for which the Jehus of Erin ' s Isle are noted . Dismounting at the moderate-sized but very dilapidated looking town , we settled with the smilingly polite but extortionate proprietor of the car , ancl , wending oneway through the one ancl only street , proceeded into the country beyond . Everywhere

were signs of the gross mis-management of land for which the Irish—or , as they say , their landlords—Lave been so long famous . Wide and spacious tracts of country revelled in their virgin raiment ; houses , or more correctly hovels , lay thickly dotted here ancl there , each with its patch of potato ground and one or two fields , ancl that was all : the intervening spaces were common to all—unowned , uncared for . We turned from the road and approached one of the " native cots . " The smoke was coming out in such

volumes from the peat fire smouldering in the open chimney that we could not at first discern the arrangements of the interior . As our eyes became accustomed to the gloom , however , we were enabled to note a couple of rickety stools , a superannuated table , a pile of peat fuel , about a dozen of that feathery tribe for -whose product the island is noted , barricaded in a recess between the fireplace ancl the window , a very uneven mud floor , diversified with small' lakes , and last , but not least , the gentleman that

pays the " rint" reposing behind the door . Lest my first experience should seem iar-fetehed , I have since been assured that in a certain house possessed by a civil and well-to-do car driver , there occupied the apartment each night—the man , his wife find 5 children , 17 bens , 2 pigs , 1 cow , and 1 horse . Notwithstanding the wretched appearance of things around us , we foiind the inmates of the hut we had entered—a man and his wife , the deaf mother of one of them , a grown-up daughter , and several

younger olive branches—very civil and obliging . They gave us several cups of deliriously cool milk , ancl after leaving some kindly tokens of recognition amongst the youngsters , we parted . The next clay I said " good-bye " to the fleet , ancl turned my face towards Bantry , en route for home . II— - ^ - expressed regret that my engagements would not permit me to go on the sea cruise with them . I inquired where they would probably go , to which received

I answer , " Can't say ; but I expect we shall do 14 days on Admiralty J- . 'itch ; you know their Lordships have a piece of blue water fenced in out here specially tor fleet evolutions . Ta ! ta !" FUEUYA . 8