from Mr. Lesly’s to view the Giant’s Causeway.  It is certainly a very great curiosity as an object for speculation upon the manner of its formation; whether it owes its origin to fire, and is a species of lava, or to crystallisation, or to whatever cause, is a point that has employed the attention of men much more able to decide upon it than I am; and has been

so often treated, that nothing I could say could be new.  When two bits of these basalts are rubbed together quick, they emit a considerable scent like burnt leather.  The scenery of the Causeway, nor of the adjacent mountains, is very magnificent, though the cliffs are bold; but for a considerable distance there is a strong disposition in the rocks to run into pentagonal cylinders, and even at a bridge by Mr. Lesly’s is a rock in which the same disposition is plainly visible.  I believe the Causeway would have struck me more if I had not seen the prints of Staffa.

Returned to Lesly Hill, and on August 5th departed for Coleraine.  There the Right Hon. Mr. Jackson assisted me with the greatest politeness in procuring the intelligence I wished about the salmon fishery, which is the greatest in the kingdom, and viewed both fisheries, above and below the town, very pleasantly situated on the river Ban.  The salmon spawn in all the rivers that run into the Ban about the beginning of August, and as soon as they have done, swim to the sea, where they stay till January, when they begin to return to the fresh water, and continue doing it till August, in which voyage they are taken.  The nets are set in the middle of January, but by Act of Parliament no nets nor weirs can be kept down after the 12th of August.  All the fisheries on the river Ban let at £6,000 a year.  From the sea to the rock above Coleraine, where the weirs are built, belongs to

the London companies; the greatest part of the rest to Lord Donegal.  The eel fisheries let at £1,000 a year, and the salmon fisheries at Coleraine at £1,000.  The eels make periodical voyages, as the salmon, but instead of spawning in the fresh water, they go to the sea to spawn, and the young fry return against the stream; to enable them to do which with greater ease at the leap straw ropes are hung in the water for them.  When they return to sea they are taken.  Many of them weigh nine or ten pounds.  The young salmon are called grawls, and grow at a rate which I should suppose scarce any fish commonly known equals; for within the year some of them will come to sixteen and eighteen pounds, but in general ten or twelve pounds.  Such as escape the first year’s fishery are salmon; and at two years old will generally weigh twenty to twenty-five pounds.  This year’s fishery has proved the greatest that ever was known, and they had the largest haul, taking 1,452 salmon at one drag of one net.  In the year 1758 they had 882, which was the next greatest haul.  I had the pleasure of seeing 370 drawn in at once.  They have this year taken 400 tons of fish; 200 sold fresh at a penny and three-halfpence a pound, and two hundred salted, at £18 and £20 per ton, which are sent to London, Spain, and Italy.  The fishery employs eighty men, and the expenses in general are calculated to equal the rent.