362 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



began to sink.^ Suspecting that the bell -was the cause of their mis- 

 fortune, they threw it into the sea, and the ship was sayed. Next 

 morning, when some of the islanders were searching for sea-weed on 

 the shore, they found the bell lying broken among the rocks. This 

 relic has long ago disappeared, having been cut up into pieces which 

 were worn as amulets, most of which hare been taken to America, 

 but it is said that some are still kept as great treasures by some old 

 people in Inishbofin, who refuse to show them to anyone. 



Eichard O'Flaherty, writing in 1684, makes mention of this bell 

 (" H-Iar Connaught," p. 117) ..." Inisark is of the same property 

 with Bofin and the saint therein worshipped, St. Leo ; of whose 

 reliques is a bell there extant." 



St. Leo's Foot-pri7it. — There is pointed out an impression in the 

 rock on which Cloghan Leo is built, which is said to be the imprint of 

 the saint's foot, and the people's explanation of how it came there is, 

 that when he had finished building the cloghan he had to leap down, 

 as he had no ladder, and alighting on the rock he left the print of his 

 foot upon it, where it still remains. 



There is a tradition on the islands of a large treasure of gold being- 

 hidden on Lavillaun (a small island of the Bofin groujD), on which a 

 large vessel of the Spanish Armada was wrecked, and some of the 

 people claim to know exactly where it is. There are also many stories 

 about Lord IS^elsou, under whom several men from these islands served, 

 and wild tales of the old smugglers ; and a very narrow passage between 

 two dangerous rocks through which a daring smuggler once steered 

 his vessel, and thus bafiled his pursurers, is pointed out. 



Archeology. 



Though making no pretentions to being an archaeologist, yet as an 

 inquiry of this sort would be imperfect without, at least, a partial 

 description of the antiquities of the place, I hope that the notes here- 

 under given may, in some degree at least, supply the want. 



1. Survivals. — In these the locality is comparatively rich, a good 

 many old implements and methods of working, which have become 

 extinct in other places, being still common. Such are the continuance 

 of the use of plants and lichens as dyes, and some details of dress, 

 such as the old blue cap, &c., which have been referred to before. 



^ One version of the story states that tlie ship had got as far as the Bay of 

 Biscay ! 



