44 J. D. Marsuatu on the Statistics and 
house had its potato garden attached. This vegetable appeared to thrive well 
throughout the island; and I was very much surprised, when sailing along the base 
of the white cliffs in Church bay, to see little plats of potatoes appearing here and 
there among the enormous masses of rock which had at one time been dislodged from 
the adjoining precipices. The only way of getting access to these potato-fields is, by 
descending the steep declivities by which they are on every side surrounded; and I 
conceived that the value of all the vegetables grown on these sequestered spots, would 
not repay the trouble necessary for their culture. I afterwards learned, that the seed 
was planted every second year only—that is, that as many potatoes were allowed to 
remain in the ground during the winter, as would produce a sufficiently large crop 
the following summer, and by this means the labour was materially diminished. 
The pasturage ground in Rathlin is very extensive, as might be supposed in so 
rocky an island. On all the headlands large flocks of sheep may be seen picking 
out the tufts of grass from amid the rocky enclosures ; and no place furnishes a finer 
breed than Raghery, Each family has a flock, however few in number, and they 
are enabled to kill a sheep occasionally for home consumption, unless an unusually 
unproductive season should force them to sell these useful animals. The sheep and 
goat will thrive well in situations where scarcely any other domestic animal could gain 
subsistence, and hence, to the inhabitants of islands, they are invaluable. The trouble 
attendant on rearing them is very trifling—they are turned out to graze in com- 
mon, each with its owner’s mark upon it, and they roam over the rocky eminences of 
Raghery, free and undisturbed, 
The climate of Rathlin is but little different from that of the mainland, the varia- 
tions of temperature being nearly the same. In winter there is no snow of any con- 
sequence, the weather usually continuing very mild. Fogs are, however, very preva- 
lent, particularly in spring and autumn, and they are frequently so dense as to prevent 
the island being seen even at a short distance. Hence many vessels are exposed to 
danger in rough weather in approaching this rock-bound isle, and shipwrecks fre- 
quently take place on its shores, from which no one survives to tell the tale. Nota 
winter elapses, during which at least one vessel is not wrecked ; and at the Bull Point, 
fragments are frequently driven on shore, as notifications to the islanders that some 
unfortunate crew have sunk to rise no more. 
In March 1833, two vessels were wrecked on the eastern side of the island, the re- 
mains of which were washed on the rocks near Doon Point. The night was dark and 
stormy, the crew, in all probability, ignorant of the coast, and a strong easterly wind 
setting in on the shore. On such a shore, no hope of rescue could for a moment be 
entertained : the islanders were doomed to hear the shrieks of their expiring fellow- 
creatures, without having it in their power to render the slightest assistance. The 
vessels beat to pieces near Doon, and in the morning their timbers lay here and there 
on the rocky points of the shore. 
