INTRODUCTION. lix 
830 feet. Thence to beyond Brandon Point, a distance of over 
ten miles, this rock-bound coast is only accessible at Brandon 
Creek, a small inlet made use of by the local canvas canoes or 
curraghs, the type of boat found most useful in these stormy 
waters. Just north-east of this creek the cliffs reach their 
maximum height, 1,238 feet, at Beennaman, while at Mas- 
satiompan, 2,509 feet, little more than half a mile inland, the 
lofty Brandon range sinks in steep broken declivities to the sea. 
Off the extreme western end of the peninsula lies the archi- 
pelago of the Blaskets, a group of fully 100 isles and islets 
which have been already fully described in an earlier section 
of this Introduction. The only other islands in this division 
are the insignificant Magharees or Seven Hogs lying off the 
sandy Castlegregory promontory which separates Brandon 
Bay from Tralee Bay. 
The interior of the Barony is very mountainous. The 
eastern end is occupied by the Slieve Mish range rising to 
2,796 feet at Baurtregaum. Westward from this, the land 
sinks to 691 feet at Glounagalt, to rise again in the great ridge 
which culminates some 12 miles westward in the imposing 
mass of Brandon, 3,127 feet, the second highest mountain 
group in Ireland. The eastern face of this range forms a 
grand cliff-wall some miles in length and one of the richest 
stations in Ireland for alpine plants. Last of these mountains 
may be mentioned the shapely peak of Beenoskee which rises 
from the shore of Brandon Bay to a height of 2,713 feet. 
Lakes are numerous in this division, exceeding 50 in number, 
but nearly all of them are of small dimensions. The largest is 
Lough Gill near Castlegregory, a shallow sheet of water about 
one and a half mile long by half a mile in greatest width, 
separated from the sea by a narrow strip of sandhills. The 
swamps and slightly brackish waters of this lake provide a 
home for three plants found nowhere else in the county, 
Ranunculus Lingua, Rumex Hydrolapathum and Chara 
canescens. Most of the other lakes are merely mountain tarns ; 
several of them, however, lie at great elevations, Lough 
Acumeen on Beenoskee being 2,021 feet above sea level, while 
the Coomaknock Lakes on Brandon, range between 2,100 and 
2,350 feet. These latter lakes are very near the extreme limit 
of aquatic plant life in Ireland ; two species, Isoetes lacustris 
and Myriophyllum alterniflorum, ascend in them to the highest 
level, while Potamogeton polygonifolius is found as high as 
2,250 feet. . 
The streams in Corkaguiny are all small and rapid, while 
woods are of insignificant dimensions. The smallness of the 
