Rrrlamation of Bo(j and Moorland in Galway. 
207 
English labourer might term it, i\\e necessary convenience) of a 
window. Had Mr. Henry been ill-advised, he might rashly 
have given orders that a window should at once be put into 
every cabin, and thus have made all his tenants bitterly com- 
plain that the comfort of their homes was ruthlessly destroyed. 
Instead of this, he proceeded more cautiously, and was content 
to put in a window for the single tenant who wished for sweet- 
ness and light. After a while, the improvement was thought 
to confer an air of greater gentility upon its possessor. When 
the neighbours complained that one had received greater ad- 
vantages than the rest, their wishes were gratified at once, and 
now there is not a cottage on the property that has not 
a glazed window that can be opened to let in air as well as 
light. 
The physical and the social peculiarities of the district must 
be considered before we can discuss intelligently the work that 
is being done. These will force themselves upon the attention 
even of the casual visitor, whether he comes via Galway or from 
Westport. In the latter case the first 10 miles of his road will 
lie over a dreary waste of bog and moor, with many small farms, 
some of them still cultivated, but, in their marks of sloth and 
poverty, even more sad than are the heaps and lines of stones 
that mark the site of hamlets, surrounded by a multitude of 
small enclosures, once tilled by hand, but now grazed over by 
rough cattle ; the next 5 miles of road along the valley of the 
Owen Erive river passes through the finest mountain scenery 
in the county of Mayo. In passing through the village of 
Leenane, at the head of Killery Harbour, he will see several 
small farms that receive a liberal application of sea-weed, and 
produce excellent crops of potatoes and oats. The population 
here have the great advantage of varying their diet with fish, 
that can be caught at all times in the land-locked water of the 
bay, an arm of the Atlantic half a mile in breadth, running up 
like a Norwegian fiord for 9 miles into the heart of the moun- 
tains. From Leenane he will pass for a distance of 7 miles 
through the Joyce's Country, and will meet with no signs of 
cultivation until he arrives at the Pass of Kylemore. If the 
southern route is chosen, the railway must be left at Galway. 
Along the first 7 miles of the road, as far as Moycullen, there 
are many well-cultivated fields and well-built steadings ; at 
Ross the road enters upon the property of the late Mr. Martin, 
of Ballynahincli ; a country so wild that it was the boast of 
Connaught that " The King's writ could not run in it." It 
extends for nearly 40 miles along the road for Clifden. The 
whole of this property was purchased by the Law Life Insurance 
