240 Proceedings of the Uoyat Irish Academy. 



(b.) Acreage and, Rental. — Tlie total area of the islands is 7155 

 acres, and the valuation £897. 



The holdings are very small, and the area of cultivation per 

 holding averages ahout 1 acre potatoes, and 1 acre oats, barley, or 

 rye. 



The rental varies greatly : in the poorest part of Gammna, about 

 Trabane village, it averages about 15s. (the best holding there pays 

 30s.), but for the group of islands the average rental is about £2 

 to £3. 



Owing to the kindness of a friend I am enabled to give the figures 

 for Lettermullen. Valuation, £386 13s. Rental, £355 2s. ^^d. 



The small size of the holdings may be j udged from the fact that 

 only forty-two of them pay rates. 



The tillage land is often held by two or more men in partnership, 

 about as bad a mode of tenure as could be devised, as there is no in- 

 ducement to effort or improvement, and if one tenant falls behind- 

 hand and gets into arrears, he and his partner are both liable to 

 eviction. 



There is a great stretch of commonage of a wild and poor descrip- 

 tion in Garumna. 



(c.) Language and Education. — But few of the people speak 

 English, and these in conversation with one another, and for all the 

 ordinary purposes of life speak Irish only. The majority of the grown 

 up people met with were purely Irish speaking, and many of the 

 younger men and boys who had learned English at school seemed to 

 be rapidly forgetting that language. In Garumna practically the 

 whole population is Irish speaking, but in Lettermullen a considerable 

 proportion know English well. The cause given locally for this is 

 that the landlord and his family formerly dwelt in LettermuHen. 

 Taking the population as a whole, probably about 80 per cent, speak 

 Irish only. The language is now taught in the schools, and the 

 children learn English through it. 



As the islands form part of two parishes, I regret to be unable to 

 give any figures as to the state of education. The parish of Kil- 

 cummin had in 1891 a percentage of illiteracy of 55*1 ; Killanin (in 

 which Garumna is) had at the same time an illiteracy rate of 60 "0. 



(n.) Sealth. — As before stated the people are, as a rule, robust, 

 stout, and hardy, and capable of bearing fatigue, hunger, and wet to 

 an unusual degree. On the whole the population is a wonderfully 

 healthy one, in spite of the adverse conditions as to dwellings, food, 

 and mode of life. At the same time several cases which ^will be 

 remarked on later, or seem to show a somewhat greater proportion of 

 unsoundness than has been met with in the other districts surveyed. 



