Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-17

oeasaptrv, presented themselves with tha
rare delight which all travellers experience
from a sense Of personal discovery. Ines
were the winter birds and wild fowl, and tht
winter fora of the silent and dazzling lrist
heights. In that brief time score OF th'
former. which were recognized, were seen
6ouble that number Of unknown haoltats OF
or visitors to, the weird and mystic regions
added TO the pleasant consciousness OF ever
present companionship; while the presence
of winter flowers were a source OF unex'
pected pleasure and delight.
Nv wanderings lay among the Mamturk
Mountains and the famous Twelve Pins of
Buunabeola, the former to the east, and the
latter to the west, of the long, ,crescent-shaped,
silvery inlaying of lovely Lough 1nagh
and its sweet, far-reaching vale. The origin
of the name of the Mamturk range, and in-
6sed of every river, lake, mountain, valley
or town, in Ireland, is interesting. 1t is
derived from the Celtic maum, an elevated
chasm or pass, especially one indicating
some terrible separation by internal ele-
mental struggle, and tore, boar. Hence
maum-torc. or, Anglicized, Mamturk, 1.-THE
mass of the boars:" for local tradition veri-
fes the ancient annals in wonderful legen-
dary accounts OF battles with legions of wild
boars with which the Handicapped heights
were once infested. The great pass itself
winds through the glen OF Bealnabrack,
where is also a wondrous little mountain
riyulet Of the same name; and is the only
inlet into the wild and picturesque Joyce's
country.
THE TWELVE PINS.
These. the Twelve Pins of Bunnabeola
form the most remarkable single group of
mountains in Ireland. Nor will / except
the Derrynasaggart, Mangarton, the Paps,
Coorieuagh, elena Purple or M'Gillicudy
Reeks, those heights which cluster about the
enchanted region OF Killarney. PIN" is q
modification of the Celtic ben, a peak.
Beanna Beols, their true name, signifies the
'peaks of Beola." Beola was a mighty
FiIbolg king who once reigned over all this
mountain-ribbed Connenara region; and his
memory is further commemorated in Toom-
beola (Beola's tumuius, or tomb at the
head Of Roundstone bay, one 0f those tre-
mendous inreachings OF the sea, few miles
south of the mountains, where Beola is said
to have been buried, and where there are
ruins OF a~!ormer majestic abbey. The
Twelve Pins cover an area O; about 40 square
miles, and comprise two chains or groups
connected, or more properly, separated, by
the lofty pass, Nam Iuagh. Their highest
SUBMITS are Knoekannahiggin, Bengower,
Littery, Derryclare, aud the "hrow" oil Lit
terv. The pass of Nam Inagh crowns the
wild and wondrous glen OF Inagh, through
which a mountain torrent dashes to the east
to Iuagh Tough; while twin stream on the
west drains the mountain heights into the
ocean at Ardbear bay and Cliiden.
The whole u majestic peaks seem to
cluster into the one mighty central monarch
peak of fKnockannahiggin. From whatever
direction they may be approached, the scene
presented is one of solitude, sublimity,
grandeur. The loftiest heights are continu-
ally wrapped in silvery mists, and the SUM-
light effect upon and through these are
magically indescribable.
A FOREIGN TOURIST.
The handsome mountain finch, a rare Wis
itant of any region in Ireland save in sever
est winters, was the very first foreign tour
list met in the Connemara Highlands. He
and host oil his kin were here dividing the
honors with the COnuaught pig-that one
object on earth which exceeds in monstrous
outlines and impalpable thinness those of
the 'razor-back" hog of the American
South-in ouerulous gropings and scratch
ings for the diminutive, delicious mast of
the beech, which skirts in noble massings
many of the lower mountain plateauS and de-
files. Here and there where swollen streams
had lie I uncouth deposits upon their banks,
on the shores of tiny lakes where sharp
blasts had churned the waters into fury be-
meath the bases of overnanging cliffs, or
again at the edges of unkempt mountain
roads, h0cks of a score or more OF the little
mountain buntings were found, hopping
jerkily about and picking at the refuse like
nice little old professors pothering over some
anatomical study.
1 did not see the bittern, but heard his
hollow boom in the grewsome twilight; and
saw the superstitious peasant at nv side
cross himself hastily and move his lips in
prayer. This bird is now an unusual speci-
men in the cultivated districts OF Ireland;
but among these desolate mountain tarns
and bogs it still skulks and booms in the
gray hours between day and night. To the
ignorant humans near him his call typifes
the voice OF offended Deity; while many a
poor belated wretch, on hearing the bittern's
drum, flashes along the mountain
paths IN an ecstacy OF fear, believing in
truth the awful 'banshee" is pursuing and
wailing its ,,'keen" OF death in his very
ears
ODD FEATHERY NATIVES.
The droll and nervous, though bright and
daring, little bluetit, or "stonechat," as the
peasants call ii, was here with a myriad
about and within the copses
skirting dense mountain forests; the wagtail
DR. ''devil's bird futtered and dashed
among the hare limbs above many q
rivulet, the nervous energy of its
eloquent tail' plainly indicating all man.
ner OF mountain gossip; and two or three
glimpses were had where the wild haw-
thorne grew OF that fabled bird of the Hvr-
canian forest, the exquisitely beautiful
whose secondary quills are tipped
with bits of waier-like flaming red. Those |
poor mems birds" the humble and melo- |
dious linnets, might be come upon without |
surprise in winter in the great forests of |
noble demesnes; but who could expect to |
ind them in these lofty solitudes? Yet |
here they are in cloudy Hocks, rising.
alighting and utterIng their pleasing but |
notes as if in response to some |
mysterious mountain litany unheard by |
human ears
In many of these vast and shadowy noun |
ain valleys. the home-nearing feeling came |
when iocks OF the modest-plumaged warb- |
ers, the titlarks, rose gracefully from foot /
bill ascent to higher hill, and again to loftier
Ilope, their gentle fight so remarkable from
heir rythmic beat OF wings in unison with |
,lear and piping notes. The fearless cross
bills in myriads sat munching the seeds OF |
zones in the clustering larcn and fir, or took |
1aintier dessert OF whitethorne berries with |
Iaucy nonchalance almost within reach OF
ny outstretched hapd.
BEDoUINs OF THE AIR.
Three specimens of those birds of terrible
powers, the peregrine falcons, were seen:
hose same feat thered Bedouins Of the air, |