its islands, two of which-Church Island and Cottage Island-are full of beauty; putting ashore in little coves and inlets; and visiting a holy well, two or three hundred yards from the banks, where I saw eleven devotees, four of whom went from station to station on their knees. I also visited a house of public resort near the lake, which the citizens of Sligo frequent on Sundays; and tasted their favourite beverage, called scolteen; composed of the following elegant ingredients—whiskey, eggs, sugar, butter, carawayseeds, and beer."

The town nearly

The part of the

The only point of picturesque attraction between Sligo and Ballina, is the small town of Balisedare, four miles on the road. A very fine stream dashes in rapids past the town, and a narrow and beautiful bay here indents the shore just at their outlet. The remainder of the road is only interesting for its fine sea-views. The town of BALLINA is pleasantly situated on the banks of the Moy, which runs through the centre of the town, separating the counties of Mayo and Sligo. forms the head of the estuary, which puts in from Killala Bay. town on the Sligo bank of the river is called Aeduaree, but generally is included under Ballina. From the excellent fishing the Moy affords, and its proximity to Loch Conn, Ballina is the resort of many anglers during the summer-season. The Moy is said to be second only to the Bann for its salmon; and, by an anecdote told in the Dublin Penny Journal, its amphibious productions are yet more remarkable. "Not a hundred years ago," the narrator goes on to say, "there lived on the banks of the noble river, above named, a person, who, though neither a very well educated man or profound naturalist, was, what is perhaps of more consequence in the eyes of the world, a wealthy farmer, and a justice of the peace for one of the neighbouring counties. It happened that his worship, who was in the frequent habit of visiting his numerous farms on this beautiful river, was obliged to cross a small stream in its vicinity, and, although on horseback, he was apprehensive of wetting a portion of his dress, out of which he took no small pride, and which he denominated his yalla-gaiters.' He therefore divested himself of those useful and ornamental appendages, and, placing them across the shoulder of his horse, pursued his way; and, after some time, arrived at the town of Ballina. Here, to his great horror, he discovered that he had dropped his 'yalla-gaiters,' and was pondering on the propriety of returning immediately in search of them, when his magisterial attention was attracted by a crowd of gaping rustics assembled round the caravan of an itinerant Polito, on which were depicted, in glowing colours, the various animals contained within. The magistrate forced his way into the crowd, and got in front of the caravan just as the showman, who had been delivering to the by-standers a long catalogue of attractions, summed all up by announcing a pair of fine alligators found on the banks of the Nile. 'Yalla-gaiters,' roared the magistrate, springing from his horse, and seizing the astonished showman by the col

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S

lar, you rascal, them is my yalla-gaiters; give them up to me this minute, or if you don't I'll cram you into jail, for I'm a magistrate.' Your alligators,' says

the astonished and affrighted showman, why them there alligators were found on the banks of the Nile.' Found on the banks of the devil,' said the magistrate, none of your tricks upon me, you rascal: I say they were found on the banks of the Moy, and they are my yalla-gaiters.' All the protestations of the poor showman as to his innocence would probably have been vain, had not a friend of the worthy justice, who happened to pass at the time, and who was better skilled in natural history, explained to him his mistake, on which he slipped a crown into the hand of the terrified showman, and desired him to say nothing about the matter." By a drive toward Killala, upon the old road leading from Ballina to that place, the traveller finds, at a few miles distance, the ruins of ROSERK ABBEY, romantically situated among the waving hills which stretch for several miles below Ballina, on the river Moy. Two miles further on lie the better preserved ruins of the once magnificent ABBEY OF MOYNE, erected in 1461. Even these, however, are fast "toppling to their fall." The abbey of Moyne lies in a sequestered pastoral district on the banks of the Bay of Killala, and the convent was watered by a small rill, which, dipping into the granular limestone, rises again under the abbey. The more prominent associations with the country between Ballina and Killala, are those connected with the famous expedition of the French, under General Humbert, in the Irish rebellion. Humbert landed at Killala, "with a thousand and thirty private soldiers and seventy officers, from three frigates, two of fifty-four, and one of thirty-eight guns, which had sailed from Rochelle on the 4th of the same month, with design to invade the county of Donegal, in which they were frustrated by contrary winds. The garrison of Killala, consisting of only fifty men, (of whom thirty were yeomen, the rest fencible soldiers of the Prince of Wales's regiment,) after a vain attempt to oppose the entrance of the French vanguard, fled with precipitation, leaving two of their number dead and their two officers prisoners, together with nineteen privates. To compensate, as far as possible by the vigour of his operations, for the smallness of his numbers, seems to have been an object with the French general. He sent, on the next morning, toward Ballina, a detachment, which, retreating from some picquet guards or reconnoitring parties of loyalists, led them to a bridge, under which lay concealed a serjeant's guard of French soldiers. By a volley from these, a clergyman who had voluntered on the occasion, and two carabineers were wounded, the first mortally. This clergyman was the Rev. George Fortescue, rector of Ballina. The French, advancing to this town, took possession of it in the night; the garrison retreating to Foxford, leaving one prisoner, a yeoman, in the hands of the enemy." From Ballina, Humbert pushed on to Castlebar, where he obtained a victory over the royalist troops, but he was arrested in his