Browne — Etlmogvai^hy of Ballycroy^ Co. Mayo. 77 



scattered state of tte population, and the absence of villages in which 

 many people might be seen together, also the difficulty in reaching 

 many parts of the district, owing to the paucity of roads and the soft 

 boggy nature of much of the land. In some instances (more than a 

 third of the whole) the men measured were at work in the bogs 

 preparing the way for a new road, a long distance from any public 

 highway, and the weather being broken and rainy, the bog was soft, 

 making walking difficult. 



Here, as in some other places previously described, the custom of 

 cropping the hair rather close made it very difficult to ascertain the 

 exact shade of colour. 



A considerable number of photographs were taken, including 

 portraits and groups, illustrative of the customs, modes of life, 

 and habitations of the people, besides several views showing the 

 nature of the surface and coast-line, and several of the antiquities of 

 the district. 



2. Physical Characters. 



(a.) General characters. — There is, on the whole, a great unifor- 

 mity of appearance in the people of this district, though, on closer 

 inspection, at least two distinct types may be discovered. 



The general appearance of the people is rather pleasing, many of 

 the men are handsome, and the women, too, are often good-looking, 

 but, as observed in the reports on the other districts surveyed, both 

 sexes seem to age rather rapidly, and some of the men become wrinkled 

 very early. 



Stature and hulk. — The men are usually stoutly built, and of 

 about the middle stature, though extremes, in this respect, are more 

 common than observed in the Mullet or the Inishkea islands. 



A few men of small stature were met with, and about an equal 

 number of tall men. 



The average height of the fifty men measured was 1721 mm., or a 

 little under 5 ft. 8 in., the extremes were 1576 mm. (5 ft. 2 in.) and 

 1838 mm. (6 feet). 



The shoulders are broad and square, and the upright carriage of 

 many of the men is very noticeable. 



Mead. — The head is massive and well-shaped, usually broad just 

 above the ears ; it is usually either braehycephalic or mesaticephalic, 

 though a few cases of dolichocephaly were observed, one of a very 

 marked degree (70*7, or when reduced to the cranial standard, 68"7), 



