It contains the county town of Sligo, the market and post | The amount of customs duty collected at the port in 1833 towns of Collooney and Ballymote; the market-towns of was 33,0947. 12s. 7d. gross, or 17,1287. 12s. 2d. net, after Coolaney, Tubbercurry, and Easkey; and the post-town of deducting repayment of trade vouchers, office expenses, Dromore-West. The principal villages are Ballysadere, and incidental charges: in 1839 the gross amount was Ardnaree, Grange, and Riverstown. 29,5301. 2s. 3d.; the net revenue, 13,7437. 118. 7d.

The corporation, before the late Irish Municipal Reform Act, consisted of a provost, twelve free burgesses, and commonalty; under that act the borough has been divided into three wards, and has a mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen councillors; the commonalty are now termed the burgesses. The borough has a court of quarter-sessions, which is also a court of record. The municipal borough, as limited by the same act, is much smaller than the parliamentary (and previous municipal) borough, which is bounded by a circular market-cross as a centre. Sligo returns one member to parliament: before the Union it sent two to the Irish Parliament. The assizes for the county, quarter-sessions for the division, and petty-sessions for the district, are held here. St. John's parish (a rectory) and Calry parish (a vicarage) are included, with the adjacent parishes of Killaspicbrone (rectory and vicarage) and Kilmacowen (rectory and vicarage), in the union of St. John's, Sligo, the gross revenue of which was returned (on the average of three years, ending with 1831) at 9457. 13s. 9d., the net revenue at 7181. 6s. 4d. There are some ruins of the antient monastery, including three sides of the cloisters, and a portion of the church, the east window of which is of beautiful design and adorned with rich tracery.

Sligo, the county-town, is situated on the Garvogue or Garvoge river, which flows from Lough Gill into Sligo Bay, not half a mile above its outfal. It is in the barony of Carbury. This town appears to have owed its importance to a castle and monastery of Dominican friars, built here A.D. 1242 and 1252, by Maurice Fitzgerald, earl of Kildare, and at that time lord justice of Ireland. The town suffered repeated injuries from the hostilities between the English and the native Irish, and from fire. In the reign of James I. it received a grant of a market and two fairs, and was in-line drawn with a radius of one mile Irish, and having the corporated and made a parliamentary borough. In the civil war of Charles I. the town was occupied by the parliamentarians under Sir Charles Coote (A.D. 1645). They were however attacked by a strong force under the Roman Catholic archbishop of Tuam, but repulsed the assailants. The archbishop was killed in the retreat; and his papers, which were taken, afforded evidence of the king's private treaty (concluded on his behalf by the earl of Glamorgan) with the Catholics. Sir Charles Coote afterwards abandoned the town, which was occupied by the Catholics, and retained by them to the end of the war. In the civil war of James II. it was taken by the Enniskilleners, who, after repelling one attack, were driven out by the Jacobites under Sarsfield: it was again occupied by the Protestants under Lord Granard.

The river Garvogue makes a bend just at the town, its course changing from west to north and north-west. Part of the town is situated within the elbow thus formed, but the greater part is on the other side (the south and west side) of the stream. The town extends, in all, about a mile from north to south, and nearly as far from east to west. The streets are irregularly laid out; they are paved, but the pavement is in many parts very indifferent, and they are not lighted. The houses are generally respectable, and some of them very superior. There are two bridges; the old bridge below the bend, and the new bridge above it. The left bank of the river, below the old bridge, is lined with quays; these quays have been extended and some warehouses built within the last few years. That part of the town which is on the south and west side of the river is in the parish of St. John; the church is on the south-west side of the town, near the outskirts: it is an antient cross church, with a massive square tower at the west end. The other part of the town is in Calry parish: the church is at the eastern end of the town: it is a modern building, in the Gothic style, with a well-proportioned spire. There are in the town a Catholic chapel (for St. John's parish), and a small Dominican convent, with a chapel attached to it; and meeting-houses for Methodists (two), Presbyterians, and Independents. Just out of the town, on the east side, are the fever hospital, infirmary, and dispensary, all in one enclosure, and a charter-school; these are near Calry church, north of the river: on the opposite bank is the county gaol. The custom-house is on the new quay, just below the town, and not far from it are the police-barracks and the government emigration-office. The town has every prospect of extension and improvement.

Collooney is in that part of the parish of Ballysadere which is in the barony of Tirraghrill or Tirerrill, about seven miles south of Sligo, through Ballysadere. It is a small place, on the right or east bank of the Awinmore (or Owenmore, as it is often written), and consisted, in 1831, of a single street of 90 houses (89 inhabited and one empty), of which about 13 were slated, the rest thatched. The street runs northward to the Awinmore, over which there is a bridge. The population in 1831 was 553. At the southern end of the town are the church, a handsome Gothic building containing some good monuments, the police-barracks, and the market-house; and in other parts of the town a Roman Catholic chapel, a linen-hall, a dispensary, and two schools. Near the town are a large bleach-ground and an oatmeal-mill. The market is on Thursday, and there is one yearly fair. A short distance north-east of the town, at the junction of the Awinmore and Arrow, are the remains of an antient castle. There was a smart skirmish near Collooney (September 5, 1798), between a detachment of the Limerick militia, under Colonel Vereker, and the invading French force, under General Humbert.

Ballymote is in the parish of Emlyfadd or Emlaghfad, in the barony of Corran, about 14 miles south by west from Sligo, by Ballysadere and Collooney. It had formerly a strong castle, built by Richard de Burgo, A.D. 1300, seized by the native Irish in the great civil war of 1641, and retaken by the Parliamentarians, under Ireton and Sir C. Coote, in 1652. The ruins of this building occupy an area 150 feet square; and there are the remains of a Franciscan friary. The town had, in 1831, 140 houses, viz. 124 inhabited, and 16 empty, and a population of 875 It is at the junction of six considerable roads, and is irregularly built. The parish church of Emly fadd, a good building in the early English style, with a handsome tower and spire, is in the town; and there are a Catholic chapel, a Methodist meeting, policebarracks, a bridewell, and a court-house in which quartersessions for the division and petty sessions are held. The linen manufacture, formerly carried on to some extent, is now nearly extinct: there is a weekly market, and there are

The population of the borough, in 1831, was 15,152; viz. 11,411 in St. John's, and 3741 in Calry: the outparts of the two parishes contain a considerable population in addition to the above, viz. St. John's, 2610, and Calry, 2679. There are a few linen and stocking weavers; but the linen manufacture, once very flourishing, is almost extinct, and the linen-hall is unoccupied. There is a large whiskey-six yearly fairs. distillery on the south bank of the river, above the new bridge, several breweries, with flour-mills, soap-houses, ropewalks, and manufactures of tobacco and snuff, hats, and candles. The trade of the port is very considerable. The exports are chiefly of corn, meal, flour, butter, provisions, and linen yarn; and the imports, West India produce, tobacco, refined sugar, tea, British spirits, wine, flax-seed, tallow, glass and earthenware, coals, iron, timber, and salt. The principal markets for corn and provisions are on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and are well attended: there is a corn and butter market every day: there are five yearly cattle fairs, and a considerable salmon fishery is carried on in the river just above the town. The estimated value of the exports in 1835 was 359,4907. of the imports, 124,6927. P. C., No. 1376.

Coolaney is in Killoran parish, in the barony of Leney, about 10 miles south-west of Sligo, through Ballysadere. It stands on the right or south-east bank of the Awin, or Owen-beg, which joins the Awinmore about two miles above Collooney. There were, in 1831, 68 houses, viz. 58 inhabited, 8 uninhabited, and 2 building; the population was 326. The houses form one street, running nearly north and south, parallel to the river, over which, near the north end of the town, is a bridge. There are a dispensary, a courthouse for petty sessions, a police barrack, and a small Baptist meeting-house. There is a weekly market, and there are two yearly fairs. There is a penny post, dependent on the post-office at Collooney.

Tubbercurry, or Tobercurry, is in the parish of Achonry
VOL. XXII.-T

by the people called by Ptolemy Ναγνάται, Μαγνάται, οι Mayvaro, Nagnatae, or Magnatae, or Magnati; whose chief town, Nayvara, Nagnata, or Máyvara, Magnata, called by Ptolemy róligionpos, an eminent city,' is supposed by Sir James Ware to have been near Sligo, though Baxter places it at or near Galway. The Aißrios or Aiẞolog Toraμòs, river Libnius or Liboeus of Ptolemy, is supposed to be the river on which Sligo stands; but the correctness of this opinion depends in a great degree on the identity of Nagnata with the town of Sligo. In the territorial arrangement of Ireland which prevailed both before and for long after the establishment of the English dominion in the island, this part of the country was divided as follows —

Modern Division.

Nearly coinciding with the barony of Carbury.

SLING, an instrument with which stones or other mis. siles may be thrown to a great distance. In its simplest form the sling consists of a thong of leather, or a piece of cord or some woven fabric, both ends of which are held in the hand of the slinger. The stone or missile is placed in the fold or double of the thong, which is made wide at that part, and sometimes furnished with a slit or socket for the purpose of holding it; and the sling is then whirled round to gain an impetus. When a sufficient degree of centrifugal force is thus generated, the slinger allows one end of the thong to escape, and the stone, being thereby released, flies off with considerable velocity. In the hands of an expert slinger, this instrument may be made to project missiles to a great distance, and with surprising accuracy.

The simplicity and portability of the sling, and the facility with which supplies of ammunition for it might be obtained, led to its extensive use among the antients as a weapon of war, as well as for other purposes. Its common use among the Jews is intimated by several passages of Scripture. In the book of Judges, xx. 16, we read of 700 men of the tribe of Benjamin, of whom it is stated that every one could sling stones at an hair-breadth, and not miss. At a later period the account of David's conflict with Goliath indicates his familiarity with this weapon; while the subsequent notices in 1 Chron., xii., and 2 Chron., xxvi., distinctly allude to its use as a weapon of offence. Several antient paintings represent the use of the sling at an early period by the Egyptians. Some of these are given by Wilkinson, who says (vol. i., p. 316, &c.), The sling was a thong of leather, or string plaited, broad in the middle, and having a loop at one end, by which it was fixed upon and firmly held with the hand; the other extremity terminating in a lash, which escaped from the fingers as the stone was thrown; and when used, the slinger whirled it two or Nearly coinciding with the three times over his head, to steady it and to increase the barony of Coolavin.

Nearly coinciding with the baronies of Corran and Leney. Nearly coinciding with the barony of Leney

This part of Connaught was made the scene of warfare between the descendants and family of Roderic O'Connor the last monarch of Ireland), in their struggle for the principality of Connaught. Hugh O'Nial, chieftain of Tir-owen, or Tyrone, was defeated near Ballysadere (A.D. 1200) in the attempt to reinstate Cathal Croobhderg, or Cathal of the Bloody Hand, who had been dethroned by his brother or kinsman Carrach, who was supported by the Anglo-Normans under De Burgh or De Burgo. Some of the AngloNorman settlers were engaged on the side of Cathal. In 1245 the castle of Sligo was built, and, having been destroyed by the natives, was restored about the beginning of the next century.

The relics of antiquity are numerous. There are many cromlechs and other (supposed) Druidical monuments; and several remarkable caverns, the origin and purpose of which are unknown. Raths, or hill forts, are numerous in all parts of the county; and at Drumcliffe is one of the round towers' which have excited so much discussion: it is distinguished by its small dimensions and coarse construction. The ecclesiastical and castellated ruins of a somewhat later date are also numerous: several of the monastic churches have been converted to parochial use.

In the general rebellion near the close of Elizabeth's reign, the royal forces under Sir Conyers Clifford, president of Connaught, were surprised in this county by the natives under O'Ruarc, or O'Rourke, chieftain of Breffney (now Leitrim), and suffered considerable loss. In the rebellion of 1641 the county was occupied by the insurgents, and though Sligo was taken from them (A.D. 1645), and they were repulsed in an attack upon it by Sir C. Coote, they recovered it afterwards, and held it till nearly the close of the war. In the war of the Revolution the county was held by the Jacobites. A body of them were indeed repulsed on their first advance toward Sligo town by the Protestants of Euniskillen; but on their advance with a superior force, they obtained possession of that town. In the French invasion of 1798, a smart skirmish was fought at Colooney between the invading force, under General Humbert, and a body of the Limerick militia, under Col. Vereker.

(Ordnance Survey of Sligo; Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland; The History and Antiquities of Ireland, by Sir James Ware, translated and augmented by Harris; Moore's History of Ireland; Gordon's History of Ireland; Parliamentary Papers.)

impetus.' In the Greek and Roman armies the light troops consisted in great part of slingers, who were called opεvdovйraι, or funditores, from opevdóvn, and funda, the Greek and Latin names of the weapon. The Carduchi, according to Xenophon, annoyed the retreating army of the Ten Thousand by their powerful slings. (Anab., iv. 1, &c.) There are no slingers mentioned in Homer; and the word which usually means sling (opevdóvn) occurs only once Iliad, book xiii., line 599), and then not in the sense of sling, but in the primary sense of the word, which means a broad band or bandage. This passage has sometimes been strangely misunderstood. The sling is not mentioned by Herodotus; and it is an error to assign the use of it to the Persians, for which there appears no evidence but a loose expression in Diodorus (xviii. 51), where he speaks of Persians, bowmen and slingers, five hundred.' The natives of the Balearic Islands attained the highest reputation for their skill in its management; which is attributed to their custom of teaching their children, while very young, to wield it, and forbidding them, it is said, to taste their food until they had dislodged it from a post or beam by means of a sling. Among the Greeks the sling was used with the greatest expertness by the Achæans and Acarnanians. Besides stones, leaden plummets, cast in moulds, were used as projectiles for the sling. These, which were called glandes, or poλvboides, were of an elongated spheroidal form; somewhat resembling that of olives or acorns. They have been often discovered in various parts of Greece, and frequently bear on one side a figure of a thunderbolt, and on the other side either the word AEEAI (take this), the name of their owner, or some other inscription or device. Some of these were of considerable size, weighing as much as an Attic pound, or 100 drachmæ. Fireballs also have been thrown by slings. Antient Egyptian representations show a small bag, attached to a belt worn over the shoulder of the slinger, for the purpose of holding a supply of stones; and a Roman bas-relief represents a slinger with a supply of stones laid in the folds of his pallium, or upper garment, hanging, like the Egyptian bag, upon his breast. Some of the slings used by the antients were managed by more than one cord; one, two, or three being used, according to the size of the missiles to be thrown.

The sling was long used, both as an offensive weapon and otherwise, in England. Strutt observes, that it is altogether uncertain whether the antient inhabitants of Britain were acquainted with the use of the sling or not;' but that our Saxon ancestors certainly used it, and seem to have been skilful in its management. Besides the ordinary

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sling, they used one attached to a staff or truncheon three curve with its convexity upwards, and made very smooth, or four feet long, wielded with both hands. This kind of are disposed on blocks which are also laid on the slip, in a sling, with which large stones were thrown, appears to have line on each side of the keel, parallel to it, and at the distance been used principally in sieges and in naval warfare. It is of a few feet (usually about one-sixth of the vessel's represented in an old drawing, supposed to be by Matthew breadth) from it. These two inclined planes are called the Paris. Slingers formed a part also of the Anglo-Norman ways; each extends through the whole length of the slip, soldiery; and the following lines, quoted by Strutt, show and its breadth is about three feet: its slope is rather that the sling had not fallen into disuse as a military greater than that of the slip, having 1 foot in height weapon at the commencement of the fifteenth century. to about 14 feet in length, so that its inclination to the They occur in a MS. poem of that date, entitled Knyght-horizon is above 4 degrees. Previously to the ship being hode and Batayle,' which professes to treat upon the duties launched, a frame of timbers called a cradle is constructed and exercises necessary for a good soldier. The object of for its support; and this, carrying the vessel with it, is the poet in this passage is to express the destructive effect allowed to slide upon the ways till the ship floats upon the of stones projected from a sling, even to men cased in water; then the cradle, whose parts are kept together and armour; and the advantages of the weapon, in being readily are attached to the ship only by treenails, either falls to carried, and easily supplied with ammunition in any place: pieces of itself or is removed by the workmen. Along the exterior side of each of the ways is a riband or ledge of Use eek the cast of stone, with slynge or honde: It falleth ofte, yf other shot there none is, timber raised above 4 inches above the surface, in order to Men harneysed in steel may not withstonde prevent the frame-work which forms the cradle from being, The multitude and mighty cast of stonys And stonys in effecte are every where, by any lateral pressure, forced off from the plane.

And slynges are not noyous for to beare.'

The cradle is formed by laying upon each of the ways one In alluding to the more recent use of slings for amuse- long timber called a bilge-way, about 12 inches in breadth, ment, Strutt mentions a substitute for the ordinary sling, and as much in depth, having its lower surface made quite consisting of a stick of ash or hazel, cleft at one end to smooth, and upon this another timber, which is capable of receive the stone; which was thus held with sufficient force being raised a little from the former by means of numerous to keep it from falling out, yet not so firmly as to resist the wedges placed between them at intervals in its whole length. impulse of the slinger. It required, he states, much practice Above these timbers, about the middle of the ship's length, to make the stone fly out at exactly the right time, so as to are laid others longitudinally; and near the two extremities are strike the mark with precision. The use of the sling may placed stout props of timber in vertical positions, the upper now be considered obsolete in this country, not only as an sides of the former and the upper ends of the latter being offensive weapon, but even as a means of amusement. in contact with the bottom of the hull. Previously to the (Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, art. Funda;' completion of the cradle the surfaces of the two inclined Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyp- planes or ways are covered with a thick coating of soap, tians, first series, vol. i.; Strutt's Sports and Pustimes.) tallow, and oil; and when, by driving in all the wedges SLINGELANDT, PETER VAN, was born at Leyden simultaneously, the upper part of the cradle is made to press in 1640, and became a pupil of Gerard Douw. He imitated against the bottom of the ship, so that the weight of the very successfully the highly finished style of his master, latter is in a great measure taken off from the blocks under whom in this respect he frequently equalled. His colour- the keel, on cutting away those blocks the ship is ready to ing is perfectly true to nature, and his chiar'oscuro admira- descend in its cradle to the water. In fact, the ship is then ble. Various instances are recorded of his extreme pa- only prevented from sliding on the ways by two short timtience in finishing his works. It is related by Houbra-bers called the dog-shoars, which are placed, one on each ken, that he was employed three years, without inter- of the ways, near the head of the vessel at a small angle of mission, on a small picture containing portraits of the inclination to the plane of the ways. Each of these shoars family of Meerman, and that he devoted a whole month to is kept in its inclined position by a short prop called a the finishing of a ruff. When he introduced a dog, a cat, poppet placed under its extremity (that which is nearest to or a mouse, which he often did, he seemed to have made a the head of the vessel), and that extremity, which is point of representing every single hair. It was to be regret- covered with iron, abuts against a projection on one side of ted that with all this labour his design and composition are the cradle, while the lower extremity abuts on a cleet, which in general indifferent, and far inferior in correctness and is spiked down to the surface of the way. When the ship expression to his master. His works are however highly is to be launched, the gates of the slip having been opened, valued, as among the best of the Flemish school, and are and the water suffered to flow in by the rising of the tide, often mistaken for those of Mieris and Gerard Douw. the poppets of the two dog-shoars are knocked away at the Dr. Waagen, in his account of the galleries in England, same moment, which is nearly that of the highest water; mentions very few of this artist's performances: one in and should the shoars not drop down, on cutting a slender Sir Robert Peel's collection; one in the Bridgewater gal- string at the ship's head a heavy mass of lead on each side lery, distinguished, he says, by the incredible minuteness of becomes disengaged, and descending upon each shoar at the detail in the execution, in which it even exceeds Gerard same instant, causes both of them to fall. Then the weight Douw, though far inferior to him in other respects; two in of the ship on the inclined planes, aided by a small elevathe private collection of George IV., which he highly com- tion of her hull, produced by the water which has entered mends, and which have both been ascribed to G. Douw, and the slip, causes her to descend gradually into the river or sold as his; and one in the collection of the Marquis of harbour. Bute, at Luton House, which he says is far more powerful and warm in the tone, and more spirited in the execution, than is usual with him. Slingelandt died in 1691, aged 51. SLIP, or BUILDING-SLIP, a piece of ground cut in a direction perpendicular to the bank of a river or harbour, so as to form an inclined plane, descending from the general surface of the land at one end, towards the water at the other end. It is frequently paved with stone, and it is entirely covered by a roof, which is supported on lofty pillars of wood. On this plane ships are built, and therefore its length and breadth must exceed those of the largest vessel for which it is intended. Its slope has about 1 foot in height to every 19 feet in length, so that its surface is inclined to the horizon at an angle of about three degrees. Its lower extremity is considerably below the level of high water, and strong gates keep the slip dry till the vessel is about to be launched.

It has been stated in the article SHIP-BUILDING, that during the construction of a vessel, the keel rests upon blocks of wood placed at intervals in line on the slip. Now when the vessel is to be launched, timbers placed side by side, having their upper surfaces worked to a plane, or to a gentle

SLOANE, SIR HANS, Bart., was born at Killileagh, in county Down, on the 16th of April, 1660. Though a native of Ireland, he was of Scotch extraction, his father Alexander Sloane having been the head of a colony of Scots whom James I. settled in Ulster.

While young his health was delicate, and from his sixteenth to his nineteenth year he suffered from spitting of blood. It was however in his youth, and while living at home, that he imbibed a taste for those pursuits in the cultivation of which he afterwards attained such celebrity. As soon as his health would permit, he repaired to London, and during four years which he spent in the metropolis devoted himself to the study of medicine and the collateral sciences. Strafforth, a pupil of the celebrated Stahl, was his instructor in chemistry, and his fondness for botany brought him acquainted with Ray and Robert Boyle. In 1683 he set out for Paris, and during his stay there attended the anatomical lectures of Duverney and those on botany by Tournefort. On his departure for Montpellier he was furnished by Tournefort with introductions to all the celebrated men at that university. Here he passed a year, spending much of his time in collecting plants, and, after having travelled through

Languedoc with the same purpose, returned to London late been suspended for six years; he resumed their publication, in the year 1684. and continued to superintend it till 1712. He likewise He gave many of the plants and seeds which he had wrote a pamphlet on sore eyes, which had considerable recollected to Ray, who described them, and acknowledged pute for many years. But his great work was the 'Natural his obligations to the donor in his Historia Plantarum. History of Jamaica,' which appeared in two volumes, folio, He now settled in London, and the young physician found with many plates, of which the first volume was published in the great Sydenham a most valuable friend, who did all in 1707, and the second twenty years after. The first voin his power to introduce him to practice. In 1685 he was lume contains an introduction comprising a description of elected a fellow of the Royal Society; and a fellow of the the island, its climate, products, and the diseases of its inCollege of Physicians, in April, 1687. His attention had habitants, followed by an account of the plants indigenous been excited when young by the descriptions of the wonder- there and in other of the West India Islands: the trees and ful productions of tropical climates, and the offer of the animals are described in the second volume. He mentions appointment of physician to the duke of Albemarle, who in his preface that the whole undertaking had been subwas going out as governor to Jamaica, afforded him an mitted to Ray, and met with his approval, though it did not opportunity of gratifying his curiosity. He accordingly set receive any emendations from him. A small Latin catasail with the duke on September 12, 1687, and after touch-logue of the plants of Jamaica had been published by him ing at many of the Caribbee islands, reached Port Royal on in 1696, and serves as a sort of index to the large work. the 19th of December in the same year. The death of the Notwithstanding his diligence in studying natural history, duke soon after his arrival diminished Sloane's resources, Sir H. Sloane appears not to have fully appreciated the beand compelled him to hasten his return, though he did not nefits of scientific arrangement, and he contents himself in leave Jamaica till he had formed in that and the neigh- his writings with referring plants to genera and species albouring islands an immense collection of plants. He arrived ready known, and made no attempt to improve the very dein England on the 29th of May, 1689, after a residence in fective classification of that day. Jamaica of only fifteen months."