, 1888-11-15

| extended, sinuous. and rami6ed Bay OF
! Mulroy. and the broader expanse OF sheep
Haven. which we reached in u few hours
snil. after rounding Fannet Head to the
west of Lough Swilly. Owing to the
grand elevations OF countless promon-
tories, and the constant vagares OF short
| line within the estueries themselves wpicn
ara backed in every direction by higher
peaks and still more romantic settings,
the scenery of these two bays Is simply
matcbless in Ireland or In any other land
| in which | ever wandered. The great
| Horn Head at the western extremity or
Sheep Haven Is alone worth the risk OF
any discomfort or danger to see. One OF
| its impressive natural phenomena, re-
minding Of miniature copy OF the same
known as the "Spouting Rock" at New
port, has a wonderful charm OF dread about
IL. u is called MacSwine's Gun.
The freauent tremendous assaults of
the ocean through the ages has actually
bored into the seaward, or north
west. face OF the promontory gi.
! paptic tunnel as perfect and spherod as
within the power of most skilful en- gineers
| to form. By some singular coincidence or
indeed from the drill power OF the driven
water itself, another bore, or hollow well,
has been forced upward through the head.
land or from some other cause, downward
t0lOuXn ltS TOCh, NJ hu thNNu
10 the horizontal tunnel. When the ele-
ments are at battle of this coast, the sea
drives it's mighty swells with such fury
into this tunne or "Gun," that the water
is shot in columpar shaft OF immense
volume from 200 TO 300 feet above the
beadland bore.mouth, like the Iceland
geiser, and with report far exceeding the
detonaton of loudest cannon. Ii is as.
serted that these reports have been heard
at Londonderry, In an airline thirty mi les
away. They are surely audible under
certain atmospheric conditions over nearly
the entire Donegal highlands, and the sim.
pie peasantry of these mountain districts
crouch beside their ingle.nooks in super
stitious awe when the awful storms are on
aud MacSwine's dread gun is booming.
lmmeasurably more eerie are the legends
and superstitions its terrors has invoked
than those which Irving caught from the
lowly Dutch Of the natskills; and the mar
vel is that no lrish.born Irving has arisen
to preserve these witchinRly entra ncing.
gentle and grewsome hobgoblins OF this
wondrous Donegal mountain region.
So grand an impression had | made
upon my good skipper by my triumI
over the coast guards--the possession of
eyes as good as patent to Donegal bar
ony over the queens own sign-manual.-.
that had no difficulty in persuading him
TO sail to and around Tory Island. the
Thor Eye of the ancient Scandinavians,
consecra.ed to Thor their deity who pre-
sided over desolate and storm.swept places
lt is situated about seven miles of the
mainland, and is the first land to be sight
ed from America on the northwest Irish
coast About three miles in length and
one in width, its southeast point is known
xpb;Ia 80 haa1.
land extremity is surmounted by lofty
lighthouse, 122 feet above the sea. The
northern coast faces the sea with line of
cliffs almost as smooth in their face as,
and of the color Of, castiron; while oppo-
Site to the south, the shores are low and
fiat. In the valleys above are the tiny
hamlets of East Town and West Town;
and the entire population of perhaps 1000
souls live here in a semi-bar barous, though
soddenly simple state, and utterly igno-
rant that their own tiny ocean peak is not
the whole boundless earth Among women
we saw we're some tremendous figures; but
they possessed little of the facial fury so
striking among some of the fishers wives
of the Northern louRhs ana coasts. Not
an hundred of these stranLe beings. men
or women, ever we're 80 far from home as
the Irish mainland, seven miles away.
Their dialect preserves many of the bold
and bardic similies of the ancient Danes.
1t would be curious, but difficult, to trace
the origin of such people. They are bi.
lingual. and indeed are most of the folk of
wild Donegal contiguous to them; but
their English had little Irish flavor; and
Scandinavian. Tradition relates much of
absorbing interest regarding this bit Of
rock and SOIL 1t was certainly the home
of the Fomorian sea pirates of remotest
antiquity. Remains are still found of
fortresses used as strongholds of the
Norwegian sea-kings. fully 1000 years
ago; and there are well-preserved, though
neglected, relics Of a later ecclesiastic era
of great impressiveness which include
crosses. a und-tower, and ancient
structures for the earliest and rudest mo-
round tower and church. built by St.
Columbkill in the sixth century. to
which is attached an ancient church-yard,
where are inferred many of the Saints
followers. The superstition here is that
should friends of the newly dead have the
presumption TO inter body in this churcn.
yard, on the following night the desecrat-
ing object would be violently whisked
away in palpable shred into utter obliv-
ion. 1t was at Tory Island that. In 3066
A. NJ, the descendants of Nemedius-
Southeastern Europe 200 years earlier,
and who were nearly all destroyed
by a pestilence on the island of Ard
Neimhidh. now Barrymore island, near
Cork-came, attacked and demolished the
principal Fomorian stronghold called Tor
Conainn, or Conang' tower. But that
subject ia too lengthy one to dwell upon
from the deck of so small an Irish COASTER;
and SO we set sail for the Innishboffin
islands toward the gentler south.
These comprise group of islets OF great
beauty and picturesqueness atthe entrance
of the wild Guildore bay: where none but