Collecting specimens of rock, or rather shards off them, seems to have been a regular occupation of visitors to the north coast of Antrim early in this century, perhaps especially by Americans. In a comic novel by Alice Milligan and her brother William, The Dynamite Drummer, one visiting American, McGillycuddy, tells how he got his specimens, or, as it is written to emphasise the Yankee pronunciation speci-mines. "Always wondered how all these folk back home brought boxes of those darned speci-mines: you know the sort, all grit and gravel, splints and sparkles - a perfect nuisance in a grip, still worse in a hatbox, yet no one ever comes home without one." When asked why so, he tells this story about the scene of the crime - the Giant's Causeway. "Because they have to . . . First day as I was strolling along the path near the hotel I met two hardbaked lookin' old salts, decked up in knitted blue jersies, varnished sombreros, and with their trousers tucked into long sea-boots. `Halt,' says one, catching me by the arm.' 'Bout turn, you're goin' in the wrong direction, sir" . . . in a jiffy he had a whole bunch of us Americans corralled and herded down the beach like tame ducks. Soon they had us all aboard a saucy-looking boat called Mary of Port Ballintrae. "Off we rowed to sea, the Mary dancing on the surges like a circus girl on a rope. It wasn't long before they rowed us into the mouth of the most murderous-looking cave as ever I saw. Then the grey-bearded chief of the picaroons fumbled in his waistbelt and produced, to my astonishment, first a pistol and after that some chip boxes which he handed round remarking" this is where we sell the specimens, half a crown a box. There's topaz in thim, mica in them, agate in thim, felspar in thim or anything ye fancy in thim. Hands up now, everybody that wants these fine speci-mens.' With that he shot the pistol off under my very nose.
"A gang of Bowery crooks couldn't have done it better. So, in a jiffy every man jack of us had a box in his pocket and those pirates had the coin. `And now,' said the chief of the crooks, `now that the gentlemen have heard the echo, give way lads, and we'll land them on the Grand Causeway'." There are many other incidents in a similar category, including a knockabout seance in Newgrange. Times and sense of humour change. Bulmer Hobson at Martin Lester, Harcourt Street, published it. Set in Carsonite times, it gives some of the political flavour and an interesting geographical tour, especially of north Antrim.