TRALEE--A VENTURESOME FEAT--OLD PATE--AN IRISH CORNET--PADDY OYSTERS--ORDERED TO BARBADOES--GRENADA--CAPTAIN ASTLEY’S CREOLE--ST. GEORGES--LAND-CRAB CATCHING--TURTLE TURNING--A JIGGER TOE--RECOLLECTIONS OF TRINIDAD--HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA--BURNING OF THE BARRACKS--LOBSTER-SPEARING--PRESENT OF A BEAR--SMUGGLING BRUIN ON BOARD--OUR PET IN THE ZOO. CHAPTER II. We were quartered for some time at Tralee, a place I shall ever remember with the kindliest feelings for its inhabitants, whose great hospitality was only equalled by their love of good honest sport. On one occasion, when the seniors of the mess were not present, a deal of good-natured chaff had gone on after dinner in the mess-room, where some of the members of the Chute hounds had assembled as guests. The subject on the tapis was the capabilities of a mare I possessed, which I considered one of the best fencers I ever saw. If you hurried her at her fences she was sure to give you a fall, but leave her alone and nothing in the shape of high banks, for which the country round Tralee was famous, would stop her. The chaff went on, and at length I said, ‘I am quite sure the mare would jump this table if asked to do so.’ As many voices proclaimed the impossibility of such a feat, I desired the mess-waiter to tell my groom to saddle the mare and bring her into the mess-room. In a short time the noise of her feet was heard, and as soon as she entered the room, Bayley, a brother officer, jumped up and vaulted on her back. I copy the following narrative from the _New Sporting Magazine_, 1850, page 353. ‘Dining at the mess of the “Indomitable Rangers” on the evening of the very last run, I there witnessed an exploit performed which I believe has never been equalled, and I do think never will be excelled. The cloth having been drawn, social converse replaced the cool formality, which is, by some mischance or other, almost the invariable attendant upon dinner-parties; and as might be expected amongst a party where all were sportsmen, and on the evening of a hunting day when a good fox had shown much sport, the topic chosen was the various particulars of the run, and the mode in which each hunter had done its work.