554 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



the entrance of the Killary Harbour, and abont six miles from the 

 nearest point of the mainland of Connemara. It is about 3|- miles 

 long, and 2 miles ^vide at its greatest breadth, containing an area of 

 2312 acres (nearly four square miles), with a population of 663 in- 

 habitants. Inish-Bofin was formerly attached to Mayo, but is now 

 included in the county of Galway. 



The geological formation belongs to the Lower Siliuian Schists^ 

 with one narrow band of serpentine on the south-west, and a few trap- 

 dykes at Ptoyal Oak Cave, and at Bunnamullan Bay. 



There is a fair extent of tillage, occupied by crops of potatoes, 

 oats, barley, lye, &c., also of pasture-land; but the greater part of the 

 suxface consists of ujidulating, hilly moor, which rises at a few points 

 to nearly 300 feet. There are four small lakes, and a few pools, 

 together with a considerable extent of moist and boggy ground, pro- 

 ducing a fah' proportion of water-plants, sedges, rushes, &c. jS^o trees 

 occur ; some alders and willows have been planted here and there, but 

 the few stunted bushes of blackthorn and aspen, with several bram- 

 bles, represent the entire arboreal vegetation. 



The coast is almost everywhere bounded by rocky cliffs, with the 

 exception of a small piece of low sand at the east end of the island, 

 opposite Inish-Lyon, and some hillocks of blown sand to the south of 

 the harbour, which, however, do not reach down to the shore itself. 



The neighbouring island of Inish-Shark (581 acres) lies close ta 

 Inish-Bofin at less than a mile, and Inish-Turk (1445 acres) five miles 

 to the north-east. Both these belong to the same Silurian formation, 

 and were both visited by us, though we had not sufficient time to 

 examine them thoroughly. 



In the coui-se of four days spent in Inish-Bofin, during which we 

 were almost constantly at work, sometimes walking together, some- 

 times taking different beats, we gathered altogether more than 300 

 flowering plants and ferns, including several species eminently cha- 

 racteristic of the west coast, and some veiy rare or local in Ireland ; 

 and we succeeded in obtaining the desu'ed materials for a very 

 interesting contrast with Ai-an. 



Inish-Bofin has seldom been visited by botanists. In August,^ 

 1801, Dr. T^^ade, then Professor of Botany to the Dublin Society, ex- 

 plored Galway under the auspices of the Society, and in the course of 

 his tour landed in Bofiji, where, in his report, * he records finding 

 Ai'butus uva-ursi (not seen by us), Artemisia absinthium (called 

 " common wonnwood " by Dr. ^ade, and probably given by him in- 

 stead of A. vulgaris), Empetrum nigrum, Juniperus communis, and 

 Asplenium mariaum — a shortlist, it must be confessed, and one which 

 includes scarcely one of the most remarkable or characteristic plants. 



j\Ir. W. M'ilillan, one of the inspectors of jS'ational Schools, was 



* " Catalogus Plantamm Rarionun in Comitatu GaUovidise" — Dublin Society's 

 Transactions, vol. ii., part 2, 1802. 



