224 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



selection liad to be made, and in consequence tlie remoter islands of 

 the group, Garumna, Lettermullen, Furnace, and Dinish were cliosen ; 

 and Lettermore, tlie most northerly island, and the one nearest the 

 mainland, had to be left unworked. The methods of observation were 

 those employed in previous surveys of this nature, and fully described 

 in earlier reports, and so they need no description in this Paper. It 

 should be stated that these islands were chosen for survey as 

 beino- a secluded and primitive portion of the old territory of lar 

 Connaught, as the whole district could not be worked, and that 

 what is said as to mode of life, customs, &c., applies, for the most 

 part, to the state of affairs on the opposite part of the mainland, and 

 especially to the wild and desolate Curraun peninsula to the east of 

 the islands. 



II. — Physiogeapht. 



The islands surveyed form part of a group which lies at the mouth 

 of Kilkerrin Bay, about ten miles to the north of the Isles of Aran, 

 and at a distance of about thirty miles from Galway. They are 

 separated from each other and from the mainland, by arms of the 

 sea, none of which are very wide, but they have always been greatly 

 cut off from the outer world, as the part of the mainland which lies 

 nearest to them (with the exception of the Crumpann peninsula, 

 which is similar in soil and surface) is wild moor and bog, and very 

 sparsely inhabited. 



Garumna is the largest island of the group, measuring about five 

 miles in length by four in greatest breadth. It has an area of 5870 

 acres, and a population, in 1891, of 1706. It is divided into four 

 townlands, Crulogh, Knock, Maumeen, and Teernea. 



Lettermullen lies to the south-west of Garumna, from which it is 

 separated by a narrow channel nearly dry at low water. It measures 

 about a mile and a-half long by a mile wide. It has an area of 787 

 acres, and a population of 549. 



The other islands of the group, Purnace, Crappagh, Dinish, 

 and Inishark, lie beyond Lettermullen. They are much smaller, 

 the largest and best of them, Purnace, having an area of only 

 218 acres. Their combined area is 497 acres, and their population 

 251. 



The islands are now connected to one another and to the mainland 

 by a chain of causeways and swing-bridges, built, during the last few 

 years, by the Government, and completed in 1897. 



