d. The dogs have also
vanished, except here and there the ghost of one, buried in the skeleton
of one of those victims of cruelty and barbarity, which have been so
numerous here within the last two months--I allude to the horses and
donkeys that were shot. It is an alarming fact that, this day, in the
town of Ennis, there was not a stone of breadstuff of any description to
be had on any terms, nor a loaf of bread."[213]

In the chief cities, the pressure of the Famine, day by day, became
greater. In Belfast, the flourishing seat of the linen trade, one of the
gentlemen appointed to visit the different districts, with the view of
ascertaining the real amount of distress amongst the poor, writes in the
following terms to the _Northern Whig_: "There is not any necessity that
I should point out individual cases of abject want, though in my
visitations I have seen many of whose extreme destitution I could not
possibly have formed a true estimate had I not seen them. Let it
suffice, however, to state, that in many of our back lanes and courts
there are families in the veriest wretchedness, with scarcely enough of
rags to cover their shivering emaciated bodies; they may be found
huddled together around a handful of dying cinders, or endeavouring to
fan into flame a small heap of damp smoking sawdust Perhaps when they
have not been happy enough to procure even that scanty fuel, they will
be found, to the number of five or six--some well, some ill, and all
bearing the aspect of pinching hunger--endeavouring to procure warmth by
crouching together upon a scanty heap of filthy straw, or mouldering
wood shavings, their only covering an old worn-out rag of a blanket or a
coverlet, that has been so patched and re-patched that its original
texture or colour it would be impossible to discern. On looking around
this miserable dwelling, nothing meets the eye save the damp floor and
the bare walls, down which the rain, or condensed vapour, is plentifully
streaming. Not a stool, chair, or seat of any description, in many
instances, is to be seen, nor commonest utensil; and as for food, not so
much as would satisfy the cravings of even a hungry infant. Let not this
picture be deemed overdrawn. If any one suppose it exaggerated, had that
individual been with me, on Sunday last, I could have shown him some
instances of suffering, that would have removed all doubt regarding the
reality of distress in Belfast. I will merely mention one of them:-