1869.] and their Uses. 339 



111 conclusion, it may not be out of place to give a very brief 

 description of the coast, but more especially of those places at 

 which the kelp manufacture is principally carried on. As before 

 mentioned, Xar-Connaught on the west and south-west is indented 

 by numerous fiords, bays, creeks, and cooses. This has led some 

 people to imagine that the name of its western portion, Conne- 

 mara, is derived from Coum-ne-mara, /. e. the " cooms or bays of 

 the sea." This however is incorrect, for, according to the historian 

 O'Fflahertie, the tract was called Conmac, after the name of its 

 prince, and ne-mara (of the sea), to distinguish it from his other 

 territories, also called after him, but situated in other counties, 

 such as Conmac-ne-rein in the Co. Longford, Conmac-ne-culy in the 

 Co. Mayo, &c., &c. 



Bounding Connemara on the north, and separating it from the 

 county of Mayo, is a remarkable fiord called The Ivillary, which is over 

 nine miles long, sometimes a quarter, rarely half-a-mile wide, and 

 embosomed in hills that rise abruptly from the water's edge to con- 

 siderable heights, Moahlrea (the bald king), the highest, being 

 2688 feet in altitude. Houth- westward of The KilJary, between 

 it and Slyne Head, the south-west point of Yar-Connaught, are other 

 bays, that extend nearly east and west, but none so considerable 

 as The Killary ; while eastward of Slyne Head the bays and creeks 

 run north and south, or nearly so, and these latter, combined with 

 east and west straits, form an archipelago between Kilkieran and 

 Greatman's Bays. 



Off the coast between the Killary and Slyne Head are 

 numerous islands and sea-rocks, or, as they are locally called, 

 illauns, carricks, and carrigeens, swept by the full force of the 

 Atlantic, therefore most advantageous ground for the growth of 

 the red weed ; and on the islands, more especially Innishbofin, 

 also on the main land, but particularly in the neighbourhood of 

 Einvyle, a considerable quantity of kelp is burned. Hereabouts 

 would not be an unfavourable place for one interested in the manu- 

 facture of kelp to examine the process ; for at Letterfrack (5 miles 

 from Einvyle) excellent accommodation can be had at Cassan's 

 Hotel ; or, if the observer would like to rough it a little, and see 

 more of the natives, he can take a canoe from Cleggan Bay, and 



however, vei'y unpalatable, and have, moreover, a strong smell of the original sea- 

 weed ; to avoid which M. Moride proceeds as follows: — "The plants, gathered on 

 the rocks on which they grow, are slightly rinsed in fresh water, in order to rid 

 them of the salt water adiiering to them, then dried and exposed to the sun, 

 whereby they lose their smell and taste of wrack ; after which they are pounded 

 in a mortar and macerated in strongly alcoholized water at a somewhat high 

 temperature. The iodized tincture tjius obtained may be used to prepare a 

 medicinal wine or else a syrup with, which will be found useful in all altections 

 for which iodine is piescribed." 



