“On leaving Inniscattery, to repair to the kingdom of Kerry, we had work enough before us, for the tide was against us, besides which we had to contend with such a variety of currents, that the boatmen required all their skill and experience to carry their slight skiff in safety to the little port of Tarbert, whither we were bound. The mouth of the Shannon has rather the character of an arm of the sea, but to consider it as such would be in violation of the principles of Irish geography. “The waves, now of a very respectable size, were rolling out towards the ocean; but the fog was completely gone, and we had the most beautiful sunshine. With the exception of our own little bark, which seemed to crest the waves like a bird, neither ship nor boat was to be seen upon the noble estuary, and, without passing a human creature with whom we could have exchanged a salutation, we arrived at length in safety at our destined harbour. “There I learned, when it was too late, that without any additional expenditure of time or trouble, I might have effected a landing at Ballybunian, whose marine caverns, at the mouth of the Shannon, are reckoned among the wonders of Ireland. These caverns stretch more than a mile from the sea into the land. Ireland, indeed, is rich in remarkable caverns, many of which are but little known to the scientific world.” The original models from which the Round Towers of Ireland were taken are still to be found in the Soudan of Africa; and the people whose ancestors erected buildings after this fashion, as they migrated from their native country to the seaboard, and crossed over to Spain—whence they visited Ireland—are to this day as savage in manners and customs as their forefathers were before they left Africa. The following description of the round conical granaries, the country where they are situated, and the builders of them, is taken from a work called _Egypt, the Soudan, and Central Africa_, by John Petherick, F.R.G.S., Her Britannic Majesty’s Consul for the Soudan:— “Those of my men who had wintered with the Djour had procured from the negroes a large quantity of tusks, the accumulation of several years’ hunting. Their journeys had extended to the confines of the Rohl, in the east, and in the territory of the Djour westwards beyond the large stream which, on reference to the map, will be seen as the largest feeder of the lake. I had discovered southwards they had penetrated the Dôr territory; and as they had succeeded in gaining the good-will of the Dôr chief Djau, I despatched a party to invite him to meet me.