y British member of its family, occurs near Limerick and Cork.
Cratloe Wood, by the Shannon near Limerick, may be specially recommended
as a hunting-ground.

[Illustration]

SPORT.

For sportsmen Ireland is a happy land, ready to supply their every want.
Royal Meath, Kildare, Waterford, Tipperary, and Cork County are hunted
by several good packs during-each season, and "the meets" are duly
published in the local newspapers.

In the large tracts of bog, moorland, river reaches, and mountain lands
there is splendid shooting; in Kerry especially, where poaching is put
down with a heavy hand, there are plenty of opportunities for sport.

In most cases the hosts of the hotels have secured the shooting of many
thousands of acres in their vicinity.

When the weather is "hard," excellent sport can be had along the
southern districts.

The gentry most usually preserve their estates with great vigilance, but
they are generous in giving permission to bona-fide sportsmen.

[Illustration: CYCLING]

GENERAL HINTS

(FROM MECREDY'S ROAD BOOK OF IRELAND.)

June and September are the driest months in Ireland. Tourists will find
the Royal Irish Constabulary the best source of information, and they
cannot do better than inquire at the various police barracks on the way
for advice as to places of interest to be visited, and the condition of
the roads. In unfrequented country districts the footpaths as a rule may
be taken with impunity, but it is never absolutely safe to do so. It is
always well to enquire of other cyclists met _en route_. The roads are
very variable, some being grand and others very bad. Intercourse with
the peasantry will be found interesting and amusing. Nothing can exceed
their civility and courtesy; and for those who are not too particular it
will be found an excellent plan to lunch in their cottages, excellent
tea, home-made bread, butter and eggs being procurable for 1/-per head.
There is little use questioning them as to distances, however. They are
nearly always wrong, and in any case they calculate in Irish miles--11
Irish equal 14 English. The police, however, are reliable, and give the
distances in statute miles. Repairers are few and far between, but the
local blacksmiths are often clever and handy men. The by-roads are
generally better than the main roads, and the surface is better at the
edge than in the middle. The mountain roads are as a rule very good, and
not nearly so hilly a