Wanderings of a Naturalist 



man pulls two oars. A small sail can be set if necessary. 

 It was in a curragh that the saintly Columba is said to have 

 set sail from Ireland, and ultimately to have landed on lona ; 

 indeed, on this latter island is a small bay, known to this 

 day as Port a' churrach, where the curragh of the saint is 

 said to lie buried. 



One by 6ne the curraghs reached us and came alongside, 

 the men who rowed them primitive and wild-looking ' in 

 appearance and talking excitedly to each other in the Gaelic. 

 Many of them were in appearance curiously foreign, and 

 indeed not a few of the island families are of Spanish descent 

 — a relic of the days when the Spanish Armada came to grief 

 along our westerh coasts. A well-known name on the Aran 

 islands is Costello, surely of Spanish origin. 



The islanders informed us that owing to a strike in Galway 

 the mail steamer had not visited them for a fortnight, and 

 that they were badly off for food and — ^what seemed to trouble 

 them still more — tobacco. Indeed, I afterwards heard that it 

 was only the emergency rations from the lighthouse that pre- 

 vented a serious shortage of provisions on the island, for the 

 weather' had been so stormy that fishing was impossible. 



From Innishear we set our course for the port of Kil- 

 ronan on Innishmore, passing Innishmaan at a distance. On 

 the west side of this island are precipitous rocks, and against 

 these the long swell was thundering, throwing up great 

 masses of spray that hung in the still air — for the wind had 

 now died down — with fine effect. 



On Innishmaan, as on all the Aran Islands, the kelp 

 industry flourishes. In Scotland the crofters no longer cut 

 the weed on the rocks, depending for their supplies on the 

 tangles cast ashore by the winter's storms, but here the 

 wrack is cut with sharp sickles from the rocks at low water, 

 and made into coles after the manner of hay. In this form 

 the weed may be left through the winter months, to be burnt 

 with the coming of fine weather. 



There is a legend on Innishmaan that over four-score 



184 



