The time
occupied from the laying of the first brick to the completion was thirty
months.
[Illustration: DEEP CUTTING NEAR THE TUNNEL.]
* * * * *
SUN FISH.
While lying in Little Killery Bay, on the coast of Connemara, in her
Majesty's surveying ketch _Sylvia_, we were attracted by a large fin
above the surface, moving with an oscillatory motion, somewhat
resembling the action of a man sculling at the stern of a boat; and
knowing it to be an unusual visitor, we immediately got up the harpoon
and went in chase. In the meantime, a country boat came up with the poor
animal, and its crew inflicted upon it sundry blows with whatever they
could lay their hands on--oars, grappling, stones, &c.--but were
unsuccessful in taking it; and it disappeared for some few minutes, when
it again exhibited its fin on the other side of the Bay. The dull and
stupid animal permitted us to place our boat immediately over it, and
made no effort to escape. The harpoon never having been sharpened,
glanced off without effect; but another sailor succeeded in securing it
by the tail with a boat-hook, and passing the bight of a rope behind its
fins, we hauled it on shore, under Salrock House, the residence of
General Thompson, who, with his family, came down to inspect this
strange-looking inhabitant of the sea.
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