the adventure of two brothers (one of whom goes to
seek the other) in one of the caverns of the West Coast of Ireland. The story is, of course, not very probable,—it does not even profess to be true,—but it is just within the limits of possibility, and it owes its special charm to the part played by a herd of seals in fishing for the hero, and so maintaining him during his imprisonment of many months. The cavern into which the brothers fall is shut off from the open sea by winding caverns full of seawater, and the great problem of the lost man, and subsequently of both brothers, since they cannot climb the steep slide down which they had slipped, is either to construct a ladder by which they can reach again the mouth of the cavern, or, if that be impossible, to reach the open sea by swimming under water through the tunnels, which are, however, provided with occasional blow-holes where the seawater does not reach the roof of the tunnel, as far as the mouth of the cavern. We will leave our readers to find out for themselves how they ultimately make their escape, and we will only add that the interest of the tale is greatly heightened by the vision which the hero, at his weakest, beholds, or imagines, of the ghost of the pre- historical Ratio warrior whose bones are buried in this cavern. It is an admirably told tale.
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