In pursuance of a private feud he arrested his enemy,
and with a slight color of law murdered him. The act was too glaring, he
was tried and to his great surprise hung. The rope broke twice, and the
country people believe that the breaking of the rope gave him a right to
a pardon. They tell me that the sheriff, a personal enemy, in spite of
the signs and tokens of the breaking ropes, hung him while he had a
reprieve in his pocket. There is a kind of Rob Royish flavor about the
memory of this man in the country side.
Continued our drive to Pontoon. As soon as the land became rugged, boggy
and comparatively worthless the tenant houses became more plentiful. Saw
some sheep about, which is always a cheering sign amid the utter poverty
of the people. On the way to Pontoon, on the top of a rock stands one of
the famous rocking stones of the Druidical time in Ireland. A party of
soldiers in their boisterous play determined to roll it down from the
rock. This they were unable to do, easy as the matter looked, but they
destroyed the delicate poise of it, and it rocks no more.
The rocks become bolder and the scenery wilder as you come to the shores
of Lough Conn. Lough Cullen, or lower Lough Conn, has bare round-
shouldered rocks sleeping round it, reminding one of the rocks on the
Ottawa about the Oiseau. The Neiphin Mountain towers up among the rocks
far above them all, looking over their heads into the lake. Lough Conn
is three miles long, and in its widest place three miles wide. Where the
upper and lower lakes meet it is narrow as a river, and over this the
bridge is placed. The marvel here is that a strong current sets in from
Lough Conn to Lough Cullen half the time, and then turns and sets from
Lough Cullen to Lough Conn. The bridge is called Pontoon because a
bridge of boats was made here at the time of the French invasion.
Saw some fishermen fishing in the lakes. There were many boats here and
there lying on the sandy shore, or anchored out in the lake. These
fishermen had no boats; they had waded out waist-deep, and stood fishing
in the water dressed in their shirts. As the fishing is strictly
monopolized, I should not wonder if these breekless, boatless fishermen
were poaching.
The quantum of fish in the waters, the scarcity of fish on the shore is
often referred to as a proof of the people's laziness. The fishing is so
severely monopolized that fish diet and fishing are to the people almost
lost arts.
