The West and South have, however, the largest and highest
of these hills, from the sides of all which descend
numerous rivers, flowing in various directions to the
sea. Other rivers issue out of large lakes formed in the
valleys, such as the Galway river which drains Lough
Corrib, and the Bann which carries off the surplus waters
of Lough Neagh (_Nay_). In a few districts where
the fall for water is insufficient, marshes and swamps
were long ago formed, of which the principal one occupies
nearly 240,000 acres in the very heart of the country.
It is called "the Bog of Alien," and, though quite useless
for farming purposes, still serves to supply the surrounding
district with fuel, nearly as well as coal mines do in
other countries.

In former times, Ireland was as well wooded as watered,
though hardly a tree of the primitive forest now remains.
One of the earliest names applied to it was "the wooded
Island," and the export of timber and staves, as well as
of the furs of wild animals, continued, until the beginning
of the seventeenth century, to be a thriving branch of
trade. But in a succession of civil and religious wars,
the axe and the torch have done their work of destruction,
so that the age of most of the wood now standing does
not date above two or three generations back.

Who were the first inhabitants of this Island, it is
impossible to say, but we know it was inhabited at a very
early period of the world's lifetime--probably as early
as the time when Solomon the Wise, sat in Jerusalem on