Page 306 - The snake's pass

294 THE snake's pass. — "
the hill, and that we shall find that the whole top of
it has similar granite cliffs, with the hollow between
them possibly filled in with some rock of one of the later
formations. However, when we get possession I shall
make accurate search. I tell you, Art, it will well
repay the trouble if we can find it. A limestone quarry
here would be pretty well as valuable as a gold mine.
Nearly all these promontories on the western coast of
Ireland are of slate or granite, and here we have not
got lime within thirty miles. With a quarry on the
spot, we can not only build cheap and reclaim our own
bog, but we can supply five hundred square miles of
country with the rudiments of prosperity, and at a
nominal price compared with what they pay now !
Then he went on to tell me of the various arrange-
ments effected—how those who wished to emigrate were
about to do so, and how others who wished to stay were
to have better farms given them on what we called " the
mainland " ; and how he had devised a plan for building
houses for them — good solid stone houses, with proper
offices and farmyards. He concluded what seemed to
me like a somewhat modified day-dream :
"And if we can find the limestone—well! the im-
provements can all be done without costing you a
penny; and you can have around you the most pros-
perous set of people to be found in the country."
In such talk as this the journey wore on till the even-
ing came upon us. The day had been a fine one—one of
those rare sunny days in a wet autumn. As we went I