the guide how old they were, and he said, many years. I advised him in conscience to inform all travellers of that fact, and promised him his task of conducting them over would be excused, as it was of performing that service for me; for I have no chances of life to throw away, when no good is to result either to myself or others. The colour of the sea-green water here, with dark masses of sea weed interspersed, is more beautiful than I ever saw elsewhere.

GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. No one should come here, without taking a boat, if the state of the water will permit, and going to see the great cavern and the Pleaskin; which are the sublime things about this wonderful work of nature. The cavern is six hundred feet long, and the arch over it, ninety feet high. The Pleaskin is the loftiest and most regular part of the gigantic ledge of basaltic rocks. One bold head or promontory advances forward perhaps a hundred and fifty feet in front of the general line of the precipice, and on each side the columns retreat in the form of an amphitheatre. There are several others indeed, but this is the most striking. There is one that sustains a rock, which is called "the Crown," but the Pleaskin cliff appears as if it were the throne of the place, supported by ranges of peers on each

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side; and thus it has stood out and met, unshaken, the storms of thousands of years.

After examining these spots, I went to the lower ranges of columns which rise just above the water, and landed from the boat to inspect them. They are wonderfully curious; of all sizes and shapesfrom six to eighteen inches in diameter, from the triangle to the nine sided figure—though the hexagonal form is the most common-and so exactly fitted together, that in some places the water stands on them without finding any passage down. Each column consists of many parts, as is usually seen in columns of human construction. The length of the parts varies, from six to twelve and eighteen inches, and one has been found about five feet long. To give strength to the whole mass, the articulations or joints of the columns are never in the same line, but vary-some of the blocks rise a little above others, presenting not a level but an uneven surface on the top. And furthermore, the surfaces at the ends of the separate blocks are never plain, but convex and concave, the two kinds of surfaces always and exactly fitting into each other.

The height of the precipices upon the shore here is from three hundred and fifty to four hundred feet. The upper half only is columnar. The steamboat in

VOL. I.-E

which I took passage-from Portrush, three miles from the Causeway-carried us along the north coast of Ireland. The waves of the wild North Sea seem everywhere to have washed it to precipices. That of Fair Head is the most imposing cliff I have ever seen.

I must not forget to mention the ruins of the Castle of Dunluce, on this coast, a little above the Causeway. It stands upon, and completely covers, a small island which is about twenty feet from the shore, and is now permanently joined to it by a stone bridge for foot passengers. This island is itself a craggy precipice rising three hundred feet from the water, and on the very verge of the precipice stand the castle walls. How impregnable it must have been may be easily judged. And yet it was once taken by a ladder of ropes; not, however, without treachery in the garrison. It has been the scene of much romantic story in the Antrim family-this name having been conferred, with an earldom, upon the family of Dunluce. An earl of Antrim married the wife of George Villiers, duke of Buckingham. The castle is in ruins of course, but the forms of the rooms, the chimney flues, &c., are preserved.

I found a usage prevailing on board the steamer which conveyed us to Glasgow, which

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marks the difference between English institutions and ours.* Every steamboat, stage coach, and hotel has its aristocratic place de reserve. Those who occupied the quarter deck of this boat, paid, I think, four times as much for their passage, as those who stood two feet below them on the main deck. Were such an arrangement to be made in one of our boats, the end of it, I suppose, would be, that everybody would go on the quarter deck.

*I am told, however, that such a usage does prevail in the boats on the Mississippi.

CHAPTER III.

Scotland-A Stage Coach Conversation-Edinburgh-Its unrivalled beauty-Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crag-Difference between objects of Romance and of real Life-Holyrood -St. Leonard's Crag-Excursion to the Highlands-Stirling The Trosacks-Lock Katrine-Lock Lomond-Highland Cottage at Inversnaid—Hamilton-Bothwell Brig-Lanark -Tweedale-Abbotsford-Melrose and Dryburgh AbbeysComparison between the People of Scotland and of New-England.

As I took my place on the top of the coach at Glasgow for Edinburgh, I found a handsome young man seated opposite to me-a boy of twelve years and a modest looking Scotch girl, with eyes sparkling like diamonds, and a freckled cheek, which coloured and changed at every turn; and to whom the young gallant was evidently attempting to make himself agreeable. On the fore part of the coach sat a young fellow, who I soon saw was much given to ranting sentiment. We took up on the way a sturdy looking middle aged man, dressed in coarse but substantial broadcloth, who said, to my surprise, as he took his seat, "This is