186 A YEAR OF liberty; or, 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



Galway. 



July 29. 

 As the reader will probably spend two or three weeks with us in the 

 wilds of Galway, he will not enjoy his trip in that secluded and 

 semi-civilised region less if he learns something of the physical 

 character and antiquities of the county. The dimensions are about 

 164 miles in length from east to west, by 52 in breadth from north 

 to south ; the extent of coast, which is very irregular, has been 

 estimated at 400 miles, whilst landwards the Shannon and the Suck 

 shut it out from the rest of Christendom. The area, according to 

 the Ordnance survey, consists of cultivated land, 955,922 acres ; 

 unprofitable bog and mountain, 476,957 acres ; and water something 

 less than 100,000 acres. 



With the exception of a spur of the Slieve Boughta mountains, 

 running from the borders of Clare, and a similar extension of the 

 Burrin range, the whole of that part of Galway west of Lough 

 Corrib-^a tract of nearly the same extent as Tipperary is compara- 

 tively flat, and, although to a great degree incumbered with bog, is 

 yet generally productive. The whole district west of Lough Corrib 

 and Lough Mask is known as Connemara ; and what memories and 

 pleasant anticipations does the name recall ! To anyone blessed 

 with a sense of the beautiful, how charming is that uncultivated, 

 half-peopled, and semi-barbarous land, with its endless low swells 

 of swamp and moorland a lake in every low expanse, and a river 

 in every glen. Latterly this region has attracted much attention 

 by its capabilities of improvement, as well as by the charms of its 

 scenery. The bay of Galway bounds it on the south, the Atlantic 

 on the west, and a deep inlet of the sea, called the Killery Harbour, 

 separates it on the north from the mountainous district of Murrisk, 

 in Mayo. From the head of Lough Corrib on the east, to Adris 



