But not only were the Irish soldiers in those days accustomed to catch their cows in a strange manner, but they had an equally strange manner of cooking them. They in fact boiled them in their skins ; having skinned a cow, they formed a bag or trough by lashing the skin firmly at tlie four corners to trees or stakes, and then having poured water into the trough, they kindled a large fire at one side, and they boiled the water and cooked the meat by heating stones to a great heat and throwing them into the trough. This seems to have been an adaptation of the manner of cooking adopted in the old Irish cooking places, called " the Boiling-places or Fire-places of the Deer." So that between the catching and the cooking, we cannot be surprised that the French were not a little astonished.
-Journal of the