I904- PRAKGER. — The Flora of Achill Island. 269 



Sruliillbeg. Several smaller lakes in the north-east are 

 similarl}^ formed. In the west, other lakes at various alti- 

 tudes occupy deep rock-basins. The coast is in general rocky, 

 and often, as has been stated above, grandly precipitous. In 

 addition to the great strand of Trawmore, or Keel, already 

 referred to, sandy bays occur at Valle}^ in the north-east 

 (where alone dunes have been formed), at Dugort on the 

 north, and at Keem in the WTSt. In the sheltered w^aters of 

 Achill Sound, peat-bog often forms the shore-line, and also 

 the higher part of the foreshore, and Fuciis grows on tree- 

 stumps from which the overlying peat has been washed 

 aw^ay. 



The streams are all short; and liable to heavy floods. There 

 are a number of villages and scattered hamlets on the island, 

 situated near the spots best fitted for cultivation. Out of a 

 total area of 36,976 acres (including Inishbiggle and Achill- 

 beg), only 5,693 acres, or 15 per cent., are at present farmed. 

 It is worth}^ of note that the area shown as reclaimed on the 

 revised one-inch map of 1899, is only about one-half of the 

 area shown on the map of 1838. The large amount of land 

 which has thus passed out of cultivation has been completely 

 re-occupied by the native flora. The cultivated areas lie 

 mostly along the eastern and southern shores, but also occur 

 as islands in the central bogs. Shelter from westerly gales is 

 a principal desideratum, and also the occurrence of a sandy 

 soil, as about River, or the previous removal for fuel of the 

 intractable upper layers of peat, as at Keel and Dooagh. 



Character of the Vegetation. 



The striking features of the vegetation of the island are its 

 treeless and wind-swept character, and the almost unbroken 

 continuity of bog arid heath associations. Inside the narrow 

 fringe occupied by the halophile groups, the moorland flora 

 holds undisputed sway, save where, in sheltered places, man 

 has reclaimed some acres from the bog. 



The Seaboard. 



To begin with the low grounds. The coast vegetation offers 

 three characteristic associations. The most conspicuous of 



