34 THE IRISH ARAN, 
fishing boats, called hookers. In fine weather, and with a 
fair wind, the sail to Kilronan past the Blackhead of Clare 
is very pleasant; not so pleasant, however, if caught in a 
sudden gale, or if deserted by the wind and left to drift with the 
tide. 
The islands may also be reached from the Connemara coast—in 
fact my first visit was made from Roundstone. When approach- 
ing Aran, the boatman, whom I had been employing for several 
weeks, said: “This is a great place for enchantments, sor.” I 
suppose that I smiled, for he immediately added, “ You don’t 
believe in enchantments,” and on my replying in the negative, 
completely posed me by the question, “Then why does 
Dr. Johnson, in his dictionary, say that Mab was Queen of the 
Fairies?” ‘To what strange uses may we come at last!” 
Fancy Dr. Johnson being triumphantly brought forward to 
prove the existence of enchantments. On this occasion I was 
landed at Kilronan on a little quay, in front of a small build- 
ing dignified by the name of the ‘Atlantic Hotel,” and the 
first object which met my eye was an upright stone fixed in 
the quay, ‘‘convaynient for the painters of boats,” the inscrip- 
tion on which showed that its original use was that of a grave- 
stone. 
The Islands are three in number, and it is supposed derived 
their name from the Irish word Ara, a kidney, which the great 
island remotely resembles in shape. The names are Ara Mor, the 
Great Island; Innis Maan, the Middle Island ; and Innis Heer, 
the Eastern Island, this is usually called the South Island. The 
length of the Great Island is nine miles, of the Middle three, and 
of the southern one two and a half miles. They contain about 
11,288 acres, only 700 of which are productive, and support more 
than 3,000 people, with the help of an occasional relief fund, 
one of which was being administered during my last visit 
there. I said that only 700 acres are productive, and while 
approaching the islands one wonders how they can support any 
living thing, for they present the appearance of undulating stone 
fields. 
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