Browne — Ethnography of Carna and Mweenish, Connemara. 505 



The only arable land near the sea is poor in the extreme, and much 

 encumbered by rocks. The climate is mild but wet, rain and storms 

 being severe and frequent. 



The general aspect of the country has been very aptly described by 

 the Eev. J. A. Einlay, in an article published in the New Ireland 

 Revieio^ some time ago : — 



" The stronghold of the constabulary, in common with the humbler 

 edifices on which it looks down, commands a view which, in point of 

 monotonous barrenness, cannot be surpassed. Inland, the country 

 seems formed of an immense sheet of granite, raised at the borders into 

 hills, and broken occasionally by patches of peat and heather. At 

 intervals the gray and brown expanse is relieved by lakes, which take 

 an inky tint fi'om the peat, with which they are bordered and lined. 

 Seawards the granite surface is broken into a rugged fringe, between 

 the tatters of which the ocean shows itself, black and scowling, for 

 the most part, as if it borrowed its expression from the forbidding 

 landscape. Along the seashore a strip of the wilderness of rock and 

 heather, varying in breadth from one to two miles, is thickly dotted 

 with human habitations." 



"With the exception of the village of Carna, which consists of 

 houses placed in some regular order, and contains some good buildings, 

 there is nothing even approaching a hamlet, all the so-called villages 

 being merely collections of houses scattered over a whole townland 

 without any attempt at regularity. 



III. — Antheopogeaphy. 



1. Methods, — No remarks .need be made as to methods employed, 

 as these were precisely the same as those made use of in previous 

 surveys, and no changes were introduced either in instruments or 

 methods. A good many difficulties were experienced, and the people 

 were more difficxdt to appro'ach than those in most of the districts pre- 

 viously worked. The shortness of the time at oui' disposal, and the 

 inclemency of the weather prevailing during our stay, were great 

 hindrances to our work, as were the rumours of impending war, which 

 was, perhaps, the greatest obstacle of all, as many of the men were 

 obviously afraid to subject themselves to examination, owing to the 

 prevalence of a rumour that conscription for the militia was about to 

 be resorted to, and ouj* visit and physical measurements seem to have 

 been imagined by some to have a connexion with this. It may also 



•The Economics of Carna," New Ireland Review, vol. ix., p. 67, April, 1898. 



