76 The Irish Naturalist. 



Mr. David Moore in 1854, ^^^ to search for Neoti?iea intada, 

 which had just been discovered in a new station on the neigh- 

 bouring limestone of the Co. Clare, and in the opinion of my 

 friend, Mr. A. G. More, was extremely likely to re-appear on 

 the similar formation of the Arans. 



It was mid-day on the 25th May when I landed at Kilronan, 

 in Aranmore, after a passage of three hours and a half by 

 steamer from Galway ; and about mid-day on the following 

 Monday I returned to the mainland, taking advantage of a 

 favourable wind to cross by hooker from Inisheer, or South 

 Island, to the nearest point of the lar-Connaught coast at 

 Inverin. This stay of five days was insufficient for anything 

 more than a hasty survey of the islands ; for short as the dis- 

 tances are — Aranmore, the largest of the group, being only 

 nine miles long with an average breadth of a mile-and-a-half 

 — progression, off the highways, is made extremely slow and 

 extremely trying to the temper and the muscles by the extra- 

 ordinary wealth of dry stone walls which chequer the surface of 

 the country. Bach of these walls is a triumph of equilibration, 

 and except in parts of the South Island, where passages wide 

 enough for a man but too narrow for a sheep are occasionally 

 left, no breach can be found in these crazy ramparts. You 

 can only pass from one field to another, to dignify by the 

 name of field the areas of naked and crevassed limestone 

 covering almost three-fourths of the surface, by climbing 

 what is almost impossible to climb without imminent risk of 

 bruised shins or heels. My first day's work amongst these 

 stone dikes was so tedious and so disheartening that on the 

 following days I engaged a stout native boy who proved very 

 useful, rather as a dilapidator than as a guide and porter. He 

 carried my camera and vasculum, and cheerfully threw down 

 with a push of his shoulder any uncommonly difficult or dan- 

 gerous wall that happened to lie in our path. I should have 

 hesitated to do this for myself ; but the young islander, with 

 an adroit touch of flattery, gave me to understand that though 

 the natives would be loath to take such a short method with 

 the walls for their own convenience, they would never dream 

 of objecting to its use on behalf of a distinguished stranger. 

 By this means I was enabled to examine a large part of the 

 surface of the islands in my short stay. 



During the first day's ramble in Aranmore the prevalence of 



