When we came down to the noon lunch at the hotel, we met Miss O’Neill and a fine-looking, elderly gentleman and lady, whom she at once introduced as her parents.
Mr. O’Neill was very cordial, and invited us to sit at their table. In some way I managed to monopolize both Mr. and Mrs. O’Neill, leaving Mike out in the cold with Miss O’Neill. However, I don’t think he minded it in the least, as both he and the fair Irish girl seemed to get on good terms at once. I was surprised at Mike. I had never known him before to take an interest in any girl. He always had avoided the young ladies as long as I had known him. I think it must have been the Irish atmosphere.
After lunch Mr. O’Neill and I went for a walk over the Causeway. Mrs. O’Neill took an afternoon nap, and so Mike and Miss Edith were left alone together again.
One reason why Mike capitulated so easily to the charms of this fair Irish maiden was that she had been an ardent student of aeronautics, and was even ambitious to fly herself.
During the afternoon Mr. O’Neill showed me the wonders of the Giant’s Causeway. It is no wonder that this unique phenomenon in geology is so far-famed. A stream of lava, 2600 feet wide, and fifteen miles long, instead of forming the usual basaltic rock when it had cooled, formed itself into detached columns, from six to thirty feet long, and from eight to twenty-four inches in diameter. These strange columns, mostly pentagonal or hexagonal in formation, present a smooth surface in three parallel terraces along this Antrim coast and make the most remarkable natural pavement ever seen by the eyes of man. There are forty thousand of these columns, and every one of them is a perfect geometrical figure. The columns are so close together that water will not pass between them, and yet each is separate.
“With skill so like, yet so surpassing art;
With such design, so just in every part,
That reason ponders, doubtly if it stand
The work of mortal or immortal hand.”
As we walked over this marvelous piece of rock formation, Mr. O’Neill told me the legend of Finn McCool, and how he built the Causeway over to Scotland, in order to provide a way for Ben Donner to come over to Ireland to accept his challenge. Ben was the champion of Scotland, as Finn was in Ireland, and Finn was determined to see which was the better man. In the contest Finn was victorious, and as there was no further use for this strange roadway across the sea, most of it had been swept away, but a little was left on the Antrim coast, a relic of Finn’s remarkable handiwork.