534 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Sligo, in Coniiaiight, with similar results. I could find only two solitary 

 allusions to the ass, and both in connexion with mules. 



Mr. Dubourdieu, in his volume on Londonderry, tells us (p. 3.36) that 

 some years earlier (the volume is dated 1812) Mr. M'Neill imported an ass 

 from Malaga to breed mules, in which he was very successful. He describes 

 this fine animal, above fourteen hands high, used for the saddle, " his head 

 not of that heavy, dull cast so common in our unfortunate creatures of the 

 same species." Apropos of Kilkenny, Mr. Tighe reports (p. 309): "Mules 

 are often used and purchased here and in Co. Wexford at reasonable prices. 

 For a small four-year-old, fit for an Irish car, four guineas, and from that 

 up to sixteen guineas for a very handsome mule." There can be little doubt 

 that here again we have to deal with tlie importation of a Spanish sire. 

 But the voliune on Wexford, a very interesting volume, never corroborates 

 the fact. So treacherous is negative evidence ! Still, in 1812, the author 

 on Londonderry knows and despises the local ass. 



Now let us hear what the author on Cork says, writing in 1815 (vol. i, 

 p. 224) : — " The working beasts of the county are horses and mules. The latter, 

 which are, as a rule, of a very small size, got by the common jackass, are in 

 the south and south-west of the county. They are occasionally employed in 

 draft, but chiefly for back-loads ; and, being easily fed, very long-lived, and 

 able to endure great fatigue, are admirably suited to the purposes of a poor 

 peasantry in a rough country. Their greatest fault is a vicious and intract- 

 able disposition, for which the owners generally find a sufftcient corrective 

 in hard work and bad keeping." 



This is in 1815. But I have also found at the very end of the survey of 

 Clare, published in 1808, the following isolated passage (p. 161):— "Very 

 great use is made of mules and asses for carrying baskets and small loads, 

 such as poor people usually load them with ; for such persons as are not able 

 to keep a horse they are a great convenience. It is astonishing what a load 

 these little asses will carry, frequently twenty-four stone, much more than 

 their own weight." 



The same observer, Hely Button, publishing an elaborate volume on 

 Co. Galway in 1824, only mentions the ass mice, and in this way: — "The 

 verge of almost every bog is inhabited, for the sake of carriage of turf and 

 black mud, of great consequence to the poor man, who frequently possesses 

 no better means of carriage than two baskets on an ass's back, sometimes 

 the human back, and the female sex shares the burden." 



Townsend, on Cork, mentions the very high price of cavalry horses, about 

 1813-14, when he was gathering his information. 



The outcome of all this is very plain. The ass was put to the same uses 



