to me, was fond as a dog, and playful as a kitten.'

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Daily the seal went out to fish, and after providing for his own wants, frequently brought in a salmon or turbot to his master. His delight in summer was to bask in the sun, and in winter to lie before the fire, or, if permitted, creep into the large oven, which at that time formed the regular appendage of an Irish kitchen.

For four years the seal had been thus domesticated, when, unfortunately, a disease, called in this country the crippawn—a kind of paralytic affection of the limbs which generally ends fatally-attacked some black cattle belonging to the master of the house; some died others became infected, and the customary cure produced by changing them to drier pasture failed. A wise woman was consulted, and the hag assured the credulous owner, that the mortality among his cows was occasioned by his retaining an unclean beast about his habitation -the harmless and amusing seal. It must be made away with directly, or the crippawn would continue, and her charms be unequal to avert the malady. The superstitious wretch consented to the hag's proposal; the seal was put on board a boat, carried out beyond Clare Island, and there committed to the deep, to

the seal was threshold!"

there lying dead upon the

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there lying

Stop, Julius!" I exclaimed, give me a moment's time to curse all concerned in this barbarism."

Be patient, Frank," said my cousin, "the finale will probably save you that trouble. The skeleton of the once plump animal-for, poor beast, it perished from hunger, being incapacitated from blindness to procure its customary food-was buried in a sand-hill, and from that moment misfortunes followed the abettors and perpetrators of this inhuman deed. The detestable hag, who had denounced the inoffensive seal, was, within a twelvemonth, hanged for murdering the illegitimate offspring of her own daughter. Every thing about this devoted house melted away-sheep rotted, cattle died, and blighted was the corn.' Of several children none reached maturity, and the savage proprietor survived every thing he loved or cared for. He died blind and miserable."

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There is not a stone of that accursed building standing upon another. The property has passed to a family of a different name, and the series of incessant calamity which pursued all concerned in this cruel deed is as romantic as true."

It was midnight-I laid down my pipe, took a candle from the side-board, wished my cousin. "a good night," and went to bed, full of pity for the gentle and affectionate seal.

LETTER VIII.

A wet day.-Fly-tying.-Piscatory disquisitions.-The Tinker.-Lessons in the "gentle art."-An unexpected ally.

THE night throughout continued wild and blustrous; the squalls, which shook the casements, became less frequent and violent towards morning; the wind settled in the south, and dying gradually away, was succeeded by a heavy and constant fall of rain. To stir out of doors was impossible; the Lodge is unprovided with a billiard-table, and it requires ingenuity to contrive some occupation for the long duration of a summer's day.

The breakfast was prolonged as much as possible; it ended, however, and my kinsman left me to give some necessary directions to his household. I seated myself in the window; the view seaward was interrupted by the thickness of the weather, the rain dropped from the thatch incessantly, the monotonous splash of

the falling water, the sombre influence of a dull and torpid atmosphere, gradually produced a drowsiness, and I fell fast asleep over a dull collection of sporting anecdotes. My cousin's return roused me; he placed a spider-table beside the window, and having unlocked a box filled with angling materials, "in great and marvellous disorder," proceeded to extract from a mass of unmentionable things, the requisites for dressing a cast or two of flies. As my own voluminous book had been sadly discomposed in the numerous interchanges I made, when vainly striving to seduce a salmon to try my" tinsel and fine feathers," I proceeded to arrange my splendid collection, while my kinsman was busied with his own simple stock. The disappointment I had endured in finding my flies so unprofitable, had made me hold the entire outfit of the London artist in disrepute; and I would have given my most elaborate and expensive fishing-rod for the hazel angle of the ancient otter-killer.

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Frank," said my cousin, "you must not undervalue what really is unexceptionable; I mean the mechanical part of your collection. Those rods are beautiful, and your reels, lines, gut, and hooks cannot be surpassed; your flies may be excellent in an English river, so put them carefully aside, as I will supply you with