1. BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT. Ireland is an island separated on the east from England by St George's Channel and the Irish Sea, and on the northeast from Scotland by the narrow strait of Port Patrick. It extends from 51°

10 to 55° 20′ N. lat.; and from 5° 40′ to 10° 50′ W. lon. Its greatest length from northeast to southwest is about 300 miles, and its greatest breadth 160. There is not a spot upon it 50 miles from the sea. It contains about 30,000 square miles.

2. MOUNTAINS. The highest ridges of this island are usually in short lines, or detached groups. They are not sufficiently numerous or connected to give it the character of a mountainous country. They are not bold or precipitous, but their sides are gentle acclivities, admitting of culture a considerable way toward the summits. The highest mountain is Sleeve Donard, in the county of Down, in the northeastern part of the island, 3,150 feet above the sea. The shores, particularly in the west, are the most mountainous parts. 3. RIVERS. The largest is the Shannon, which flows southwest into the Atlantic. It is about 170 miles in length, runs through several lakes or Loughs, and widens at its mouth below Limerick to a spacious bay: it is deep and navigable. The Barrow flows south about 100 miles to the sea, at Waterford. The Foyle and Bann are small streams which fall into the sea at the northern extremity; the latter discharges the waters of Lough Neagh.

4. LAKES. The Irish name for lake is Lough. There are large numbers of them in the island. Lough Neagh in the northeast is the largest; it is 15 miles long, and 7 broad. Its waters deposit a calcareous sediment: the shores are tame and uninteresting. Lough Earn, a little to the west of this, consists of two lakes joined by a canal; the first is 20 miles long, and the second 15; they are comparatively narrow. They contain many islands, and their shores are pleasant, but not bold. Lough Corrib, on the western coast is a narrow sheet of water, 20 miles in length. The most noted are the three lakes of Killarney, at the southwestern extremity of the island. They are small, but very beautiful, and will bear a comparison with the finest lakes of Scotland and England. Their banks are high, and covered with wood; numbers of verdant islands are scattered over their surface, and the mountains resound with the roar of waterfalls.

5. BAYS. The western coast is the most deeply indented. The largest bays are Galway and Donegal. On the eastern coast, are the bays of Dublin and Dundalk.

6. CLIMATE. The climate is damper than that of England, but otherwise similar. Westerly winds are frequent and violent. Snow is rare in winter and passes rapidly away. The fields have a green appearance throughout the year. 7. SOIL. A great part of this island is covered with immense bogs, or sterile tracts, producing nothing but heath-bog myrtle and sedge grass. They form a broad belt across the centre of the island, widening toward the west. The remainder of the soil is stony, but the moisture of the climate preserves the herbage, and renders the land excellent for pasturing.

8. GEOLOGY. Granite is for the most part, the foundation of the island. Limestone occurs in many parts, and basalt on the northern coast.

9. MINERALS. Coal is the most abundant mineral. It is found in Kilkenny, in the south. Marble and slate occur in the same quarter. Iron was formerly produced in many parts, but at present few or no mines are worked. Copper, silver and gold have also been found in small quantities.

10. FACE OF THE COUNTRY. The surface of Ireland is almost entirely level. The general appearance of the country is varied and pleasant, al

though bare of trees. In some parts, are rich and fertile plains, and in others, gentle slopes and waving hills.

Ireland was once covered with forests which are now replaced by immense bogs. These form a remarkable feature, characteristic of the country. They afford abundant supplies of peat, used by the inhabitants for fuel. From their depths are also taken quantities of wood in complete preservation, which indicate that these bogs are the remains of the ancient forests. The skins of animals and men that have been swallowed up in them, have been found converted into a sort of leather by the tanning matter which the moisture contains. 11. NATURAL CURIOSITIES. The greatest curiosity in Ireland is the Giant's Causeway, an immense mass of basaltic columns upon the northeastern coast. This stupendous work of nature first strikes the spectator with the impression that an enormous pier or mole was begun upon the beach, the foundations laid and the stones hewn out for building; but that the work was suddenly abandoned. This appearance has given rise to its name; and there is a tradition among the natives that the giants once began to build a causeway across the sea to Scotland, but were stopped in their undertaking by the ancient Irish heroes. The causeway consists of three piers projecting from

the base of a cliff. The pillars are of a dark color, and so closely united, that it is difficult to thrust the blade of a knife between them. Each pillar is a distinct piece of workmanship; some of them have 9 sides, but the most have 6. In some places, the causeway rises into cliffs 250 feet above the sea.

In the neighborhood, are two singular caverns, which admit the entrance of The roofs form almost a regular pointed arch and produce an effect

boats.

similar to that of a gothic aisle. Some parts of these caverns are formed of rounded stones, and others of walls of basalt.

POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY.

1. DIVISIONS. Ireland is divided into 4 Provinces, Ulster, Leinster, Munster and Connaught. These are subdivided into 32 counties.*

2. CANALS. The Dublin and Shannon Canal extends from the Liffey at Dublin, across the island to Moy, on the Shannon, 65 miles, 24 of which are across a marsh. The Royal Canal extends nearly parallel to this, and is about 10 miles distant from it. The Newry Canal passes along the southern part of the county of Down, and is used for the transportation of coal. The Ulster Canal is intended to unite Loughs Earn and Neagh, and has but recently been projected. A ship canal has also been planned between Dublin and Galway.

3. CITIES AND TOWNS. Dublin, the capital of Ireland, is delightfully situated at the bottom of a bay on the eastern coast, about a mile from the shore. It is divided by the little river Liffey into two equal parts. The city is nearly square, being about 2 miles in extent. The houses are generally of brick, and the streets irregular; but those that run parallel with the river, are for the most part, uniform and spacious. In the more modern part, they are from 60 to 90 feet wide. There are several fine squares, one of which, called Stephen's Green, occupies 27 acres, and has a magnificent appearance. Sackville Street is one of the finest in Europe. No city in proportion to its size, has a greater number of elegant buildings. A vast number of country seats and villages are scattered over the country in the neighborhood, and are displayed in a charming manner by the slope of the ground down to the bay. The high lands of Wicklow bound the prospect in the interior, and render the view in every quarter delightful. Yet the stranger will not fail to observe in Dublin the most painful marks of indigence and distress. Men, women and children of all ages are seen in the streets partially covered with rags, so loosely attached to each other, as to seem on the point of dropping off. Whole streets are filled with wasted mothers, bearing in their arms their pallid offspring; attenuated and gray haired men, tottering from age and want; and others bearing in their countenances the evidences of hopeless poverty. The suburbs of Dublin are occupied by the hovels of the poor, which are far inferior in cost and comfort to the cow houses of the United States. Yet there is a quietness and resignation about these Irish poor, which, to an American, is astonishing. They seem to submit to their condition as if it were their just lot, and cheer their misery with wit and merriment, whenever an opportunity offers.

Dublin has a considerable trade by sea, and the canals which extend from this point to different parts of the island. The banks of the river are lined with elegant quays, and shipping of 200 tons may come up to the lower part of the city. Here are large manufactures of linen, cotton, woolen and silk. Population in 1821, 227,335.

The next city to Dublin in importance, is Cork. It is on the southeast side of the island, 14 miles from the sea. It is a seaport with a good harbor, and a flourishing trade in the export of salt provisions. The greater part of the city is built upon an island. The public buildings are simple in their architecture, but large and convenient. Pop. 100,658.

COUNTIES OF IRELAND. Province of Ulster. - Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, Monaghan, Tyrone.

Province of Connaught. Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo.

Province of Leinster. — Carlow, Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny, King's County, Longford, Louth, Meath, Queen's County, Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow.

Province of Munster. - Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford.

Limerick, upon the Shannon, has some manufactures, and a large export trade. Pop. 59,045.

Londonderry on the northwest coast is an ancient place, with a fine gothic cathedral. It carries on some commerce with America, and the West Indies. Pop. 18,500. Waterford and Belfast, are considerable seaports.

4. AGRICULture. Agriculture is very backward. The cultivators are ge nerally not proprietors of the soil, and studiously avoid any permanent improvement of the land, lest the rent should be raised. The Irish are idle, and their implements of husbandry very rude. Wheat is not generally cultivated, and what is raised is often inferior. Barley is now common, but oats are raised in a tenfold proportion to that of any other grain. The Irish staff of life, however, is another article which is so extensively cultivated, as to confer upon this island, the name of the 'land of potatoes.' This root furnishes to the poor, the greatest part of their sustenance. It is remarkable, that a plant brought originally from America, and hardly known in Europe a century ago, should now be so universally cultivated in Ireland, and grow in such perfection there. Even in the United States, this vegetable is called the Irish potato; this, however, is to distinguish it from the sweet potato of the South. The dairy is the best managed part of Irish husbandry.

5. COMMERCE. Much grain and other agricultural products are exported to England. The British navy is supplied with salted beef and pork, solely from this country. The various manufactures also supply many materials for foreign commerce. The exports for 1823, amounted to £8,152,750; and the imports to £6,020,975. The produce of the customs, for 1827, was £1,976,498.

6. MANUFACTURES. The most important are those of linen. They have flourished in this country since the reign of Henry VIII. The raw material is almost wholly raised on the island. In 1827, there were exported from Ireland, 4,284,566 yards of linen, valued at £263,658. In the latter part of the last century, there were annually exported 25,000,000 yards. The cotton manufacture has been recently introduced; and there are some woolen manufactures.

7. INHABITANTS. In the eastern part, the people are chiefly of English descent; in the west, the originally Celtish race is less mixed, and in the north, there are many people of Scottish descent. The common classes are strongly marked with the national peculiarity of features, and by this they are readily recognised in other countries. These classes have little beauty, for their indigence exposes them to many physical wants and hardships. This observation however will not apply to the class in more easy circumstances. The Irish have clearer complexions than the Scotch, and they are hardy and strong; they are rather less in height than the English; the orders are the same as in the rest of the United Kingdom.

8. DRESS. There is no national form of dress, except that of England, and this is somewhat varied. It consists in a coat of frieze, a waistcoat of the same, a shirt of linen, made at home, and breeches, purchased at the shops, seldom fitting, and never buttoned at the knee. Some districts are marked by the color of the frieze. A traveller concludes at once, from the common dress, that he is in a country of extreme poverty. The dress is often but a broken patchwork of rags, sometimes not entirely hiding the skin; and children of neither sex have stockings or shoes; many of these, indeed, go half naked, and some go entirely bare; shoes and stockings are, with many adults, but things of ostentation, worn as in Scotland, at church. On Sunday, few are ill-dressed; one suit is kept sacred for festivals, at which there are both shining faces, and goodly apparel. The men wear their hair long and shaggy, though they dress better than the women. On holidays the women wear white gowns and colored petticoats; and have a cloak thrown over the arm. Vast quantities of old clothes are imported from England, in every grade of shabbiness.

9. LANGUAGES. The English is the general language, though not always spoken even by the intelligent, without some of that well known intonation which is called the brogue. In the south and west, the Erse or Gaelic, is so general, that a stranger, who knows only English, can neither communicate, nor understand.

10. BUILDING. The houses, even of the rich, are far less elegant and comfortable than in England: they are square and gloomy edifices. The cabins of the poor are as slight protections from the climate as were ever reared in civilized countries. They are without chimneys or floors, and are made of mud and straw, and covered with sods or heath; many have no windows, and few have more than a single pane. The door is often but a straw mat. The furniture is in keeping with the house, and if there be any besides the crock, it is but a chest, a bench, a table, and a bed. There is but one room, and this is free, not only to any person to enter without knocking, but equally open to the fowl and the brute.' The villages often consist of whole streets of mud cabins. The city of Dublin, the centre of which, is hardly surpassed in Europe, for the beauty and splendor of its edifices, is surrounded by miserable hovels, inferior in comfort to the wigwam or tent of the western savage.

11. FOOD AND DRINK. There is little variety in the food of the greater part of the Irish, which consists principally of buttermilk and potatoes, though in spring there is not always a sufficiency even of these, and the scarcity often rises to a famine. A cow is kept in almost every cabin, but neither butter, cheese, nor even poultry and eggs, are ever thought of by the common people as articles for food for themselves; these go to pay rents, taxes, and tythes, and the buttermilk only is reserved for the proprietors. Every family has, if no other furniture, at least one capacious article, called a crock, or kettle, which is convertible to many uses. The water is brought home, clothes are washed, potatoes boiled, and the harvest of potatoes often brought home in the crock. The crock or potato-bowl is placed in the middle of the floor, and the family gather round it, squatting on their hams to eat; at least, this is the practice where there are no tables or moveable seats. The beggar is as welcome as an inmate of the cabin, and is never turned from the door; such inhospitality, it would be feared, would bring a curse upon the cabin. Animal food is seldom tasted, or indeed anything as food but potatoes, by the mass of the people.

The number of the indigent in Ireland, and the degree of misery to which they are often reduced for food and other necessaries of life, can hardly be imagined in this country, where famine never comes, and where pauperism scarcely exists, except what is created by the improvident emigrants from Europe. Many of the towns in New England are without a single pauper, and there are but few in the whole United States. But the Cork Reporter' of a late date, says that in three parishes of that city alone, there have been found no less than 26,000 paupers, and the whole city is supposed to present an aggregate of 60,000 persons without the means of providing for themselves. The number of persons who die of mere starvation in a country like this, must be considerable.

The Irish are temperate from necessity, as their poverty seldom permits them to have the dignity of denial. Whiskey, however, is a constituent part of festivals, and acting on the ardent national temperament leads to quarrels, which are called rows. Many of the hard earned gains are expended for whiskey, though the consumption of this is on the decrease. Up to 1829, there was a progressive increase in the consumption of spirits in Ireland. In 1830, there was a decrease of home made spirits alone of 210,903 gallons, and in the first half of 1831, a decrease of 721,564 gallons; while in Scotland, during the same time, the decrease was 513,687 gallons,