xli 
“It is reported by the boatmen of the lake that a canoe, forty 
feet in length, made of the trunk of a tree hollowed out, is sunk in 
the lake, opposite Annadown. This, when our operations in its 
vicinity shall be in progress, I will, should it be your wish, make 
it my object to recover. 
‘“‘ With reference to the fact,* that so few remains of the wea- 
pons or utensils of the ancient Irish have been discovered in this 
neighbourhood, I would observe, that few or none of the ornaments, 
weapons, or utensils of gold and bronze, of beautiful workmanship, 
which are so frequently met with in other parts of Ireland, have 
been found here, within the limits of my observation. This cir- 
cumstance would seem to mark a formerly existing inferiority of 
population and civilization in this province, as compared with the 
eastern and central portion of our island. 
“Tam, my dear Sir, yours faithfully, 
‘« (Signed), SaMvueEL Roserts. 
“W. T. Mulvany, Esq.” 
* [In this observation there are strong grounds for believing that Mr. Ro- 
berts is mistaken. I find in the Annals of the Four Masters, for the year 
1178, the following record: 
‘«The River Galliv was dried up for a period of a natural day; all the 
articles that had been lost in it from remotest times, as well as its fish, were 
collected by the inhabitants of the fortress, and the people of the country in 
general.” ; 
Again, in 1191], in the Annals of Kilronan: 
‘¢The River Galliv was dried up this year; and there was a hatchet 
found in it, measuring a hand, from one point to the other; and there was a 
spear found in it, measuring three hands and three fingers in breadth, and a 
hand from the shoulder in length.”—See O’Donovan’s Annals of the Four 
Masters, note under year 1199. 
O'Flaherty, in his Iar-Connaught, also states that the river became sud- . 
denly dry on Tuesday, 7th September, 1647; and again on the 23rd Feb- 
ruary, 1684, during the continuance of a great frost. 
These statements are quite reconcileable with the nature of the district. 
The large lakes acting as reservoirs, and the probable stoppage of some of 
the cavernous passages from Lough Mask and other parts of the Catchment 
Basin, coupled with the discharging powers of the cavernous passages of 
Terryland or Castlegar, above the town of Galway, might produce the re- 
sult; whilst, owing to the existence of Lough Corrib and its expanse, there 
are in reality no deposits carried down by the river to cover any things that 
had been lost.—W. T. M.] 
