Reeks, and other mountains of South Kerry. A little further on,
nearly all the people got out at a small station; and the young
woman I had admired gathered up most of the household goods and got
down also, lifting heavy boxes with the power of a man. Then two
returned American girls got in, fine, stout-looking women, with
distress in their expression, and we started again. Dingle Bay could
now be seen through narrow valleys on our left, and had
extraordinary beauty in the evening light. In the carriage next to
ours a number of herds and jobbers were travelling, and for the last
hour they kept up a furious altercation that seemed always on the
verge of breaking out into a dangerous quarrel, but no blows were
given.

At the end of the line an old blue side-car was waiting to take me
to the village where I was going. I was some time fastening on my
goods, with the raggedy boy who was to drive me; and then we set off
passing through the usual streets of a Kerry town, with public--
houses at the corners, till we left the town by a narrow quay with a
few sailing boats and a small steamer with coal. Then we went over a
bridge near a large water-mill, where a number of girls were
standing about, with black shawls over their heads, and turned sharp
to the right, against the face of the mountains. At first we went up
hill for several miles, and got on slowly, though the boy jumped
down once or twice and gathered a handful of switches to beat the
tall mare he was driving. Just as the twilight was beginning to
deepen we reached the top of the ridge and came out through a gap
into sight of Smerwick Harbour, a wild bay with magnificent
headlands beyond it, and a long stretch of the Atlantic. We drove on
towards the west, sometimes very quickly, where the slope was
gradual, and then slowly again when the road seemed to fall away