Reclamation of Bog and Moorland in Galway. 209 
approached, and for the remaining 15 miles it skirts the southern 
and western sides of the Mamturk Mountains, passing between 
them and the Twelve Pins, grand and rugged masses of quartzite 
rock, rising singly, and yet in close proximity to heights of 
from 2000 to 2300 feet. In the whole drive from Oughterarde 
•to Kylemore there is scarcely a tree to be seen except on the 
islands of Lough Inagh, and there are hardly any signs of 
cultivation except the small patches of potato garden by the 
side of the cabins, few and far between. Amid so much that 
is wild and desolate, it will be noticed that the road itself is in 
excellent repair, and has been very well constructed. All the 
main roads throughout the district are equally good, having 
been made by Government during the time of the famines, to 
give employment and relief to the starving peasants. The road 
enters the Pass of Kylemore at its eastern extremity and runs for 
some 4 or 5 miles along the side of the Kylemore Lough, and the 
rapid Dawris river till it reaches the little village of Letterfrack 
at the head of Ballynakill Harbour on the shore of the Atlantic. 
Looking down the valley, it is seen that it is bounded on the 
north and south by a rugged chain of hills, from 1500 to 2000 feet 
high. Immediately below, the lake occupies the whole breadth 
of the eastern end of the valley ; the eye is refreshed by a belt 
of 400 acres of wood, clothing the hill on its northern side, and 
at the foot of the wood are seen the grey granite walls of the 
castle, built on three terraces hewn out of the rock on the edge 
of the lake. South of the Castle at Addergoole and further west, 
where the valley grows wider on each side of the Dawris river, 
there are bogs of deep peat, but the greater part of the valley is 
occupied by moorland, a thin covering of peat resting upon 
metamorphic rocks of mica schist and hornblend. Banks of 
limestone occur on each side of the valley, and are worked on 
the south at Mweelin, and near the pinetum on the north, 
between the castle and garden. Lime is the first requisite for 
the reclamation of peat land. It has been hitherto drawn 
chiefly from the quarry at Mweelin, but the completion of the 
building operations will now render the supply from the second 
(j^uarry available for use on the land. On the southern side of 
the valley, reclamations have been made at Addergoole and 
Mweelen, on the level land opposite to the castle, but those of 
most importance have been carried out on the hillside north of 
the valley, opposite to the village of Letterfrack, at Toorena, 
and at MuUaghglass, extending in a northerly direction over 
the crest of the same hill, to the southern shore of an indentation 
of the coast line. Some insight into the value of the land in its 
unreclaimed state may be gained by referring to Griffiths' ' Tene- 
VOL. XIV. — S. S. P 
I 
