they pass through the narrow channel. A rope bridge connects the shore with the rock, which is visited for birds' eggs and feathers.

7. Fair Head, the north-eastern point of the island, is a mass of columns of greenstone of great height. Giant's Causeway, a little to the west of it, consists of still more regular columns, forming three platforms which extend 250 yards into the sea; and are thought to be connected beneath the ocean with the similar columns of Staffa. To the north of the Causeway lies Rathlin Island, where Robert Bruce took refuge from Baliol.

LESSON 27.-THE GIANT'S CAUSEWAY.

1. Now we come to the Giant's Causeway. And let us confess to a feeling of disappointment, which we felt at the first sight of this singular and far-famed place.

2. We expect, as the name tells, vast size and great grandeur. Yet in these qualities the Causeway is surpassed by the basalt pillars on the Island of Staffa, and far more so by the miles of vast perpendicular cliffs of basalt columns in long ranges which line this coast as far as Fair Head, rising even to the height of 250 feet, and not equalled in grand appearance in any part of the world.

3. How then is it that the Causeway became famous, and still keeps its reputation? This is to be accounted for by two facts: first, it was the group of those formations that earliest gained the notice of travellers; and secondly, it is the most perfect group of these formations yet discovered.

4. The Causeway has all the appearance of a mole or a quay made with giant pavement projecting from a steep

headland some hundred feet into the sea, and is formed by upright pillars of basalt, which stand in contact with one another, presenting a pavement somewhat like a solid honey-comb.

5. The pillars have from three to six sides, but the sixsided are as numerous as all the others taken together. Each pillar consists of several pieces, the joints being very neat and compact. The sides of the pillars fit evenly and closely, so that there are no void spaces.

6. The legend goes that Finn M'Coul, a giant warrior, laid it as a highway from his own country to the shore of Scotland, for the giants of both lands to pass to and fro. When the giants died out and there was no need of the road, it was said to have sunk in midchannel, leaving the ends at Staffa and Antrim above. water.

7. The Causeway consists of three divisions, which have been named the Little, the Middle, and the Great Causeways. The Great Causeway is composed of many hundred thousand columns. It is approached from the east by the Giant's Gateway, which is like a flight of steps.

8. Most of the objects around the Causeway are connected with the giants. We have the Giant's Organ just above, a singular line of grand pillars 120 feet high, bearing no small likeness to the pipes of an organ.

9. Then there is the Giant's Loom, the Giant's Pulpit, and the most remarkable of all, the Giant's Amphitheatre. Everywhere through this singular district the rocks present strange forms which suggest likeness to the works of man. Thus, near Port na Spania is a noted group of three pillars, that standing on a lonely rock, shoot upwards to the height of about forty feet.

10. These are known as the Chimney Tops, and it is said that in the night one of the vessels of the Spanish

Armada, mistaking them for the chimneys of Dunluce Castle, cannonaded them. To see all to the best advantage, one should go along the coast in a boat in fair weather, and also ascend the cliffs.

11. A walk along the cliffs eastward brings you to the grand headland of Pleaskin. Then past the ruined castle of Dunseverick, perched high on the top of a huge basalt

rock that stands out alone from the mainland, we come to Carrick-a-Rede-the Rock in the Road.

12. A wild, dark, steep rock it is, of basalt, that shoots up, rough in outline, to over eighty feet from the sea. A chasm of sixty feet divides it from the shore of the mainland, from which it may be reached by a bridge of

ropes.

13. A perilous and unstable footing it seems to afford to him who is bold enough to tread it, yet the peasants and fishermen cross it fearlessly and safely during the

season for the salmon fishery, after which it is removed during the winter.

14. Now perhaps comes the grandest of all the headlands of Antrim-Benmore or Fair Head, which rises 636 feet above the sea level, from which it shoots up almost like a wall. It is formed of huge pillars of basalt, like in formation, but far surpassing in size, those of the Causeway.-J. F. Waller.

LESSON 28.-THE ISLAND OF ACHIL.

1. The island of Achil (Ak'-il) is by far the largest in Ireland, containing a district of 46,000 acres and a shore line of eighty miles.

2. The village where we stayed is in a beautiful situation; above it towers Slievemore, whose conical and rifted head springs from the sea to a height of 2217 feet. I think I never saw a more beautiful sight than the summit of this mountain, wreathed as it was by a crown of rosetinted clouds, below which the evening rays were playing on the gleaming masses of quartz, contrasting with wonderful effect against the dark gulleys on the mountain side.

3. Inland, Achil is an expanse of brown heather; but its beauty consists in the mountain belt that girdles it seaward.

4. Looking over the broad Atlantic, at the western end of the island, is the Croghan, which viewed from the land. is but an uninteresting outline of some 2000 feet in height. But let us ascend to the top, and we shall find that the other half is gone, cut away and submerged, leaving a tremendous cliff, washed at the foot by the sea.

5. Seaward, we strain our eyes in search of land, America being the nearest according to geographers; but poets and legend-lovers assure us that not far from Achil lies the enchanted island of O'Brazil, that happy island, flowing with milk and honey, to which St. Brendan and his companions sailed in skin-covered skiffs, and remained there seven years.

6. It is commonly believed that this blest region is suddenly revealed to the faithful observer, and an Irish poet sings

"On the ocean that hollows the rocks where ye dwell,
A shadowy land has appeared as they tell;

Men thought it a region of sunshine and rest,
And they called it O'Brazil, the Isle of the Blest.

From year unto year, on the ocean's blue line,
The beautiful spectre showed long and divine;
The golden clouds curtained the deep where it lay,
And it looked like an Eden, away, far away."

7. The native hamlets of Achil are singular in appearance. Some of them are the queerest collection of mudcoloured wigwams that can be seen in a Christian country, and are built without the slightest pretension to order, just as though they had come down in a shower or dropped by accident.

8. The people gain their living by fishing and looking after the summer crops of oats and potatoes. But within the last few years, English money has been employed in gaining some of the mineral wealth of the island. Bog iron-ore, adapted for fine castings, is plentiful inland; and a valuable mineral called soap-stone is found in the rocks and mountains.

9. Coasting vessels called "hookers" pass up and down the narrow sheltered channel between the low east coast