there is a slip of
limestone land, from Kilgarvon to Cabbina-cush, that is six miles east of
Nedeen, and three to the west, but is not more than a quarter of a mile
broad, the rest, including the mountains, all sandstone. As to its
rents, it is very difficult to tell what they are; for land is let by the
plough-land and gineve, twelve gineves to the plough-land; but the latter
denomination is not of any particular quantity, for no two plough-lands
are the same. The size of farms is various, from forty acres to one
thousand; less quantities go with cabins, and some farms are taken by
labourers in partnership.

Soon entered the wildest and most romantic country I had anywhere seen; a
region of steep rocks and mountains which continued for nine or ten
miles, till I came in view of Mucruss. There is something magnificently
wild in this stupendous scenery, formed to impress the mind with a
certain species of terror. All this tract has a rude and savage air, but
parts of it are strikingly interesting; the mountains are bare and rocky,
and of a great magnitude; the vales are rocky glens, where a mountain
stream tumbles along the roughest bed imaginable, and receives many
torrents, pouring from clefts, half overhung with shrubby wood; some of
these streams are seen, and the roar of others heard, but hid by vast
masses of rock. Immense fragments, torn from the precipices by storms
and torrents, are tumbled in the wildest confusion, and seem to hang
rather than rest upon projecting precipices. Upon some of these
fragments of rock, perfectly detached from the soil, except by the side
on which they lie, are beds of black turf, with luxuriant crops of heath,
etc., which appeared very curious to me, having nowhere seen the like;
and I observed very high in the mountains--much higher than any
cultivation is at present, on the right hand--flat and cleared spaces of
good grass among the ridges of rock, which had probably been cultivated,
and proved that these mountains were not incapable from climate of being
applied to useful purposes.

From one of these heights I looked forward to the Lake of Killarney at a
considerable distance, and backward to the river Kenmare; came in view of
a small part of the upper lake, spotted with several islands, and
surrounded by the most tremendous mountains that can be imagined, of an
aspect savage and dreadful. From this scene of wild magnificence, I
broke at once upon all the glories of Killar