134 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



situation of the place, enabling the distiller to carry on his 

 business leisurely, and thus avoid the bad consequences 

 attendant on hurrying the process,*— for to rapid and 

 defective distillation may be ascribed the burnt flavour, 

 so common in whisky produced within the range of the 

 Revenue. The barley, also, grown in this and the 

 other adjacent islands is excellent — and as the spirit is 

 drawn from a copper still, it has many advantages to 

 recommend it. The illicit apparatus in common use 

 is, with few exceptions, made of tin — the capture of a 

 copper still, from the superior value of the metal, would 

 be a serious loss, and consequently a cheaper substitute 

 is resorted to. 



Here, the still is considered a valuable heirloom in a 

 family, and descends in due succession from father to 

 son. When not in use, it is lowered by a rope into 

 one of the deep caverns with which the western face of 

 the island abounds, and nothing but a treacherous 

 disclosure by some secret enemy could enable the 

 Revenue to discover the place where it is concealed, in 

 any of the unfrequent visits they make to this remote 

 spot. 



That the attention of the Preventive officers is not 

 more particularly turned to a place notorious for its 

 inroads on the Revenue may appear strange. In fact this 

 island enjoys a sort of prescriptive privilege to sin against 

 the ordinances of the Excise. This indulgence arises, 

 however, not from the apathy of the Revenue, but from 

 natural causes, which are easily explained. A boat 

 may approach Inniskea in the full confidence of a settled 

 calm, and before an hour a gale may come on that will 

 render any chance of leaving it impracticable, and weeks 

 will elapse occasionally before an abatement of the storm 



