CONNAUGHT. 



425 



the island, if we except certain portions of Munster, and in 1871 no less than 

 39 per cent, of the inhabitants still spoke Irish. In no other part of Ireland is 

 education at so low an ebb. 



Leitrim is a narrow strip of country stretching from Donegal Bay to the 

 central plain. Lough Allen separates its northern, mountainous portion from 

 the more level region, studded with numerous lakes, in the south. Manor HaniUfon, 

 in the fertile valley of the Bonnet, is the principal town in the northern part 

 of the county. Carrick-on- Shannon , the county town, is merely a villuge, and 

 Leitnm, the old capital, is even less important. 



The county of Roscommon forms part of the central plain. It lies beyond the 

 Shannon, and is bounded by the Suck in the south-west. Coal is won in the extreme 

 north of the count}^, on the banks of the Arigna, and near Keadue village. Boyle, 



Fig. 208.— Galway Bay. 

 Scale 1 : 800,000. 



50 j 



\-^^^ ^ 's^mrw^-f^ z- 



on a river of the same name, is a market town. Elphin, farther south, is an old 

 episcopal city. Roscommon, M'ith the ruins of an abbey and a castle, manufactures 

 coarse earthenware. 



The count}' of Galway is divided b}' Loughs Mask and Corrib into two well- 

 marked regions. To the west lie the wild mountain land of Joyce's Country, 

 Connemara, and Jar Connaught ; whilst in the east a plain extends to the Shannon, 

 broken only towards the south-east, where Slieve Anghty, on Lough Derg, rises 

 to a height of 1,243 feet. 



Galivay, at the mouth of the river which drains Lough Corrib, and on the 

 north shore of a wide bay, occupies a favourable position for commerce, and as 

 early as the fourteenth century, soon after its foundation by an English colony, it 

 carried on a brisk trade with Spain. Andalusians and Castilians established 



