Page:The Snake's Pass (Stoker).djvu/84

 bogs, and yet, I do not remember, that any one has attempted much concerning them. We were close to Knockcalltecrore when he finished his impromptu lecture thus:—

"In fine, we cure bog by both a surgical and a medical process. We drain it so that its mechanical action as a sponge may be stopped, and we put in lime to kill the vital principle of its growth. Without the other, neither process is sufficient; but together, scientific and executive man asserts his dominance."

"Hear! hear!" said Andy. "Musha, but Docther Wilde himself, Rest his sowl! couldn't have put it aisier to grip. It's a purfessionaler the young gintleman is intirely!"

We shortly arrived at the south side of the western slope of the hill, and as Andy took care to inform me, at the end of the boreen leading to the two farms, and close to the head of the Snake's Pass.

Accordingly, I let Sutherland start on his way to Murdock's, whilst I myself strolled away to the left, where Andy had pointed out to me, rising over the slope of the intervening spur of the hill, the top of one of the rocks which formed the Snake's Pass. After a few minutes of climblingclimbing [sic] up a steep slope, and down a steeper one, I arrived at the place itself.

From the first moment that my eyes lit on it, it seemed to me to be a very remarkable spot, and quite worthy of being taken as the scene of strange stories, for it certainly had something 'uncanny' about it.