1892-93.] 539 



His remarks would be arranged under the following heads : — 

 Environment, The People Themselves, Mode of Life, 

 Folk-Lore, Archaeology, and History. In other words, in 

 order to find out who people are and how they have become 

 what they are, we must first study what they are, what they do, 

 what they think, and what they have done. Analysis must 

 precede synthesis. 



(1) Environment: — The three main islands of Aran lie 

 N.W. — S.E. at the mouth ot Galway Bay. Aranmore, or 

 Inishmore, the largest of them, is about 9 miles long and 

 averages i£ broad, and had in 1891 a population of 1996. 

 Inishmaan is about the third of the size of the north island, 

 with a population of about 456. Inishsheer, the south island, 

 is somewhat smaller, and has a population of about 455. The 

 climate is mild and uniform, it rarely freezes, but there is any 

 amount of rain. The geological formation is Carboniferous 

 Limestone, and the conformation of the land is such that 

 towards the Atlantic there are vertical cliffs which range up to 

 250 feet in height. The hills decrease in height by numerous 

 terraces towards the north-east. By far the greater portion of 

 the island (he was practically confining himself now to Aran- 

 more) is covered with bare rock intersected in all directions by 

 deep crevasses, which are choked with maiden-hair and other 

 ferns, beautiful and rare flowers, and sweet grass. In places the 

 naked rock forms large slabs. Scattered all over the island are 

 large erratic boulders from the Connemara mountains. There 

 are some arable and pasturage fields, but some of them, at least, 

 are artificial and not natural, for the people bring up sea-sand 

 and sea-weed and strew them on the live rock, when there is 

 sufficient depth of soil they plant potatoes, and after several 

 crops of these they can make a grass meadow, and later they 

 can grow rye. Only in two sheltered spots are there any trees 

 growing. 



(2) People : — The people are well-made, of moderate stature, 

 and good-looking, with fresh complexion, brown hair, and blue- 

 grey eyes. Their heads are rather long and narrow, their faces, 



