Morning journal and courier., 1888-11-03

keeps diary, writes letters and appears who'll I ly unconscious that she is deprived of any needed sensation.
 AFOOT MN IRELAND. Malin Head-The Gulf Stream-Rug- ged Northwest Coast of Ireland Quaint Traditions.
 AFOOT TN IRELAND. DONEGAL, Ireland, Oct. 23. To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER: From the region of the Giants Causeway and the Skerries, past the shining mouth of Lough Foyle, our route lay westward along the misty coast of Inishowen, whose eternal 1 mountain sentinel, Sieve Snaght, rises grim and lonely above the gray fegs of the north; and we were soon gliding between Malin Head, the most northern mainland ground of Ireland, and Ennistrahul, the ultima thule of Irish islets towards Iceland. It is through this wild ocean path the steamers travel in their northermost way between America and Europe; and as the mainland and island are less than five miles apart, 6 noble view of both may be enjoyed. The Head has less wildness and magnifeence than any portion of the Irish coast have so
 far seen. Yet, capped by it's gigantic light | house, it's purples and grays, broken by dark Assures of lonely glens and the deep blacks of cavern mouths, rounding boldly into sea walls or red, or here and there into stretches of sand dunes, intensified in their solitari- ness by dreary hut or cabin; coupled with glimpses of the wild and rocky crags of En- nistrahul, where as fearful a record of wreck is kept as at Nova Scotia's Sable Island, that sand grave of the sea; give one shudder of dread upon the calmest waters beneath the fairest sky.
 Fair as that sky may be, danger is ever ! near. This whole coast is but part of the rim of a vast devils cauldron whose con- l tents seethe and whirl ceaselessly. The great Gulf Stream, debouching from our own | shores, sweeps to the northeast across the ! Atlantic. The mighty Arctic current rush. | ing from polar seas between the eternal ice shores of upper Scandinavia and Iceland to the southwest, and meeting the fozmer, the great maelstrom of the Norway coast is \ formed; and the inconceivably tremendous f elemental struggles are continued, in either direction towards the southwest and north- l east from the vortex with lessening fury, as | the broken sea forces lose somewhat their awful power. Thus the entire northwest Irish coast is a skirmish ground in advance and retreat for these terrible ocean conflicts:
 and its shores vividly suggest in their stony, | steely, jagged crag teeth and heights, the picture of some chained Titanic creature growing, moaning and flashing it's worn | fangs at the ceaseless savagery of conflicts
 which through ages have broken upon it in surpassing oceanic convulsions. Well it is
 at these wild times for the fishers and coast CTS that they scud behind the foamings and thunderings into the restless bosoms of cove I and tough; and well 1t was for that our l canny skipper, Casting the hell in the air." l as he graphically put it, made all possible speed for the safe waters of Lough Swilly, behind the sandy shores and hideous huts of
 the half savage fishermen of Fannat Head. And here occurred little incident illus trating the fact that all the genuine banditti of civilization are not among the guarda civ- il of forlorn Cuba. No sooner were we in safe anchorage than a boat load of blue bloused pirates in her gentle majeety's ser- vice put out from the great coast guard sta-
  and accusative mein gave us all, with the craft from stem to stern, g lively overhaul ing. Surely there was something rakish, something positively reasonable, in our un- savory little vessel. It was correctly h- censed. Everything was according to re- quirement of the stately board of admiralty regulations. But alack and ahal it's skipper was 8 hated Irishman from the west coast. By token of nature, heredity and history, here was prime. Far more dire than all that I.s- was American, and that one browner, grimier and more travel stained and ferocious than the wild Irish skipper himself. Here could be no less than the very incarnation of dynamite. They accordingly approached me with caution and severity commensurate with the certain importance of this luckily found Balfcurian prize.
 ny yer'e in the day!'' (This menacingly to the skipper, who really began to feel cause for alarm.) t'An' wud ye step ford like 8 man, an guy rock water account O y'rsefP' with many other scornful queries and DOT tentieus commands were showered upon me glibly. I never before so thoroughly appre- ciated good Mir. Bayard's majestic passport parchments as at that luminous moment. Ann I took my own time about releasing it l from it's great blue envelope. That done, I unfolded it's two cross-folds with positive ! dignity; the conscious, operative dignity of ease and negligent delay. Then, as the sun was shining across Aileach down over the wide Swilly basin through delicate mists un- | til the whole space was flooded with light ! like goblet of amber wine, suddenly lift~ | ed the yard square document between our | tormentors and the southern sun. For a ment was myself enthralled in it's prideful l contemplation. There sat the American eagle like an aggressively defensive setting 1 hen rising in fury upon her disheveled nest,
 her naughty head and missing open beak dis- | turbing the upper air, her right claw as if
 elutching blades of mouldY hay, her left ! griping thunderbolts and arrows, and below
 her startling nebule of stars, like spilled
 nestful of flashing eggs tumblng into space beneath.
 "Ahai-faith an its the aigle bird, good for sore eyes. Ye can fairly see her scramel'
 shouted my skipper gleefully, and with nigh ty reinsurance.
 l It should have quailed them; and it did tc
 the degree that they withdrew for sullep counsel.
 "Faith an it's the 'bobs' the spalpeens are
 wantin';;" whispered my skipper, now itch ing for dilemmas.
 But gave them the ''bobs," shilling
 apiece. with my eheery compliments.
 "Belikes ye'Te quare traveleri" they
 muttered while regaining their boat, as if re
 luctant to leave so profitable field of ope
 ration.
 "Belikes ye'r'e no coast guards at all, mt
 sun downs; but the fine black guards alto.
 getherl" roared back my skipper in wild anc
 belligerent triumph, now thoroughly reused
 for war, as they grumblingly rowed away uI fi the narrowing Lough.
 Il Almost as large and as interesting as tn.
 Loughs of Foyle and Swilly are the extend
 ed, sinuous and rami6ed Bay of Mulroy, ant
 the broader expanse of Sheep Haven, whicl } ! we reached in few hours sail, after round