Ireland North and SouthTours in the North of Ireland. Official Guide to the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway,the Giant's Causeway and the Antrim Coast; The Sunny Side of Ireland. How to See It by theGreat Southern and Western Railway by John O'MahonyReview by: G. H. C.The Irish Naturalist, Vol. 7, No. 11 (Nov., 1898), pp. 265-266Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25521495 .

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1898o] 265

IRELAND NORTH AND SOUTH.

Tours In the North of Ireland. Official Guide to the

Belfast ancd Northern Counties Railway, the Giant's

Causeway and the Antrlm Coast. pp. 172, maps and illus

trations. Belfast: W. and G. Baird, Ltd., I898. Price 6d.

The Sunny Side of Ireland. How to see It by the Great

Southern and Western Railway. By JOHN O'MAHONY. pp. 236, 7 maps and 130 illustrations. Dublin: A. Thom and Co., Ltd.

Price Is.

All well-wishers to our country will welcome the enterprise shown by

the Irish railway companies in endeavouring to spread information and

invite visitors by the issue of such attractive guide-books as those now

before us. A few months ago Mr. Praeger's Guide to the Co. Down

district was noticed in our columns; it is encouraging to find that other

parts of Ireland are being similarly popularised.

The Northern Counties Guide coinsists for the most part of clear

topographical information on the country lying between Belfast and

Londonderry, with brief and reliable historical notes. The distances

between the various points of interest, methods of communication, boat

and car fares are given in commiiendable detail, and the reader is allured

to visit the scenes described by the fine series of Mr. Welch's photo

graphs wbich illustrate the book. The information regardinlg the line,

its stations, hotels, cloak-rooms, book-stalls, and similar accessories to

the comfort of travel will be found of value. We notice, however, that

of eleven articles quoted as sold at the Company's refreshment-rooms,

only one (bread anld butter) is a food, while there are seven different

kinds of intoxicants; this will not attract the hungry. And it is with

regret that we observe that only first class passenigers can obtain

luncheon or dinner on the trains.

Naturalists will be most attracted by the closing pages of the book,

where they will find a concise geological history of the district with

special reference to the scenery by Prof. G. A. J. Cole, a short survey of

the flora by Mr. Praeger, and archoeological notes by Mr. W. Gray. It is

a healthy sign that the attention of casual tourists should be called to the

meaniing of the natural objects by which they pass; a landscape becomes

far more interesting when the gazer has some glimmering of how it has

come to be. We rejoice to see geology and botany thus pressed on the

traveller's notice, but why should zoology be altogether passed by?

The waters of Belfast Lough, miade classical ground to the natuiralist by

the researches of Thompson and his colleagues, the bird-haunted shores

of Lough Swilly, the presence of such rarities amlong British moths on

the Antrim and Derry coasts as Heliothis scutosa, and Nyssia zonaria were

surely worthy of mention.

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266 /he Irish Naturalist. [Novenmbe

The Southern Guide is in many respects a contrast to the Northern

4nore rhetorical, more poetical, less business-like. Details of routes and fares are given in connection with the Killarney and Kenmare

districts; but miany towns are passed by with a melntion of the objects of

interest, bright historical and poetical allusions, and no instructions how

the sights are to be seen. The rhetoric at times defies the laws of

physics, as when we are told (p. 70), that "the distant mountain of

Caherconree sees his regal head reflected in the sea." But no reader

can fail to catch the enthusiasm of the writer for the beautiful land he

describes, and it is not possible to praise too highly the reproduction of

the photographs which illustrate the book; the clearness of detail even

in the smallest vignettes is admirable. Indeed the general appearance

of the pages is most pleasing.

Like the Northern Guide, this also contains chapters on the botany

and geology of the district, but instead of entrusting these to specialists,

Mr. O'Mahony has compiled them himself. In the botailical chapter,

closely following the late A, (. More's paper in Guy's " Cork," he can be

charged with nothing worse than neglect of recent work, as when he

states that Co. Cork is the only locality in Europe for Spiranthes Roman

zoviania. But in the geological chapter we are informed that " the epoch

of the greatest upheaval of the Alps," during which 1" the surface of

Ireland assumed its present appearance " occurred " before the close of

the Palteozoic era, sinlce Eocene and probably at the end of Miocene

times (!) " After this startling introduction, Mr. O'Mahony settles down

to follow Prof Coles recent articles on Irish geology published in

Knowledge, reproducing several of his maps and sections in illustration.

As in the Northern Guide, zoology is altogether neglected; the Kerry

Slug and the Natterjack Toad will not be disturbed by the tourist who

relies on the present book for his knowledge of the natural features of

the country. How much light needs shedding on natural objects was

brought home to us the other day in-the Railway Hotel at Killarney.

In a list of excursions, hung on the walls, visitors are gravely informed

that the Devil's Punch-bowl under Mangerton-a cirque hollowed out

of Old Red rocks- is " the crater of an extinct volcano ! " Perhaps the

authority for this is also responsible for the relegation of Eocene and

Miocene to the Palzeozoic era. May a new edition of Mr. OMahony's

guide soon appear with a less revolutionary classification of the rocks.

G. H. C.

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