80 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



nndersLzed, and by no means so good-lootmg as their southern 

 neighbours ; and, I should say, in other points they are eq^ually 

 deficient.- To overcome their early lounging gait and slovenly habits 

 is found by military men a troublesome task ; and while the Tipperary 

 man speedily passes through the hands of the drill-sergeant, the Mayo 

 peasant requires a long and patient ordeal before a martial carriage 

 can be acquired, and he be perfectly set up as a soldier. These 

 defects once conquered, none are better calculated for the profession. 

 Hardy, active, patient in wet and cold, and accustomed to indifferent 

 and irregular food, he is admirably adapted to endure the privations 

 and fatigue incident to a soldier's life on active service, and ia dash 

 and daring no regiments in the service hold a prouder place than 

 those which appertain to the kingdom of Connaught." 



Though there are some men of small stature in the community, 

 there are also some above the middle height, and the majority are 

 of about the middle stature. 



Ballycroy being pre-eminently the district of County llayo, 

 inhabited by a colony of Ulster origin, it may not be out of place to 

 repeat here what was written about people of similar origin iu the 

 Mullet, that there appears to be no foundation whatever for the 

 statement made originally by an anonymous writer, and quoted 

 repeatedly since by several writers both in this country and abroad, 

 to the effect that the descendants of the dispossessed Ulster tribes, 

 who settled in the counties of Sligo and Mayo, have through inter- 

 marriage and deficient food dwindled to an average height of five feet 

 two inches, and become prognathous, pot-bellied, and utterly de- 

 generate. As before stated, the average stature of the fifty men 

 measured was 1721 mm., or barely under 5 ft. 8 in.; no selection 

 whatever was practised beyond excluding some ungrown young lads ; 

 and this average is perhaps a little below the true figure, as it was 

 said by several of the people that most of the best grown men were 

 away working as migratory labourers in England. Only three men 

 whose height was less than five feet three and a half inches were met 

 with, and they seemed to be exceptional cases. Only one dwarf is 

 known in the district. 



^ This 13 a matter of opinioii, in which I can by no means agree ^th this 

 author. 



