The Irish standard., 1897-09-11

degree. 1t is not bog. ii is not {;
swamp, neither does it seem to be what
is generally known in the west of Ire
land as a curragh-it is probably a COM
bnation of the three 1t must contain
more lakes than other spot of earth OF
the same size in the world. The lakes
are all shapes and sizes, from the size
Of boghole to hundred acres Over
300 Of these lakes can be seen from the
hill OF Cashel With the mighty Twelve
Pinns and their granite peaks on one
side, with cleaning, multitudinous,
nameless bog tarns scattered beneath,
with scores of miles OF indented, sea-
eaten coast, with sea lochs and fresh
water lochs In ineXtricable confusion,
and often within a few rods of one
another. the view from this hill may
safely be set down as by far the grand
est, the widest, the most extraordinary,
but not the most beautiful in Ireland.
The mountain range of the Twelve
Plnns Is the great redecming feature OF
Connemara. Without them i, would be
anything but an attractive country, for
its other so-called mountains are only
long, tame, ridgy elevations, as dull, as
unlnterestng and as featurelcss as can
be imagined. Its sea-indented coasts
are curious and bewildering in their in
Vulnerable far-entering bays; but they
are tame and clifiless, and if curious are
generally wanting in picturesquesness
Connemara without the Twelve Pinns
might be a curiosity; but ii would have
few attractions for anyone but an angler
or grouse shooter: but those savage
| awful hills are its glory, and make it
for those who love wilGness and grand
eur the most interesting part of ireland
Nothing can show more clearly how de-
ceptlVe the height Of mountains may be.
/ and how the height counts for compared
with other attributes, then looking over
the government survey of Ireland
where it will be found that none of them
exceed 2,4OO feet above the level of the
sea. There are, probably, scores of
mountains in these islands that are
higher than the Twelve Pinns. but
which, on account of their tame and
rounded shapes, look like mole hills af-
ter seeing those steep, rock-ribbed
giants Of Connemara
Connemara is thinly peopled; vet IT
contains more people than would ap-
pear at first sight. 1t is, strange to saw
the mountain parts of 1t that contains
the largest population. The fiat parts
those awful plains where lakes NAV he
counted almost by the thousand, are so
! wet and flat that no human habitation
could be built upon them except in rare
localities, and the soil is SO poor that
| no amount of manure or of industry
could make most of it grow a potat0
All That seems able to grow on It is
coarse grass that is nearly the same in
winter as In summer. Young cattle will
eat 1t rather than die; sheen will NOT
| touch 1t, and to most animals that live
on grass 1t is an abominaton. In the
mountain valleys, on the mountain sides
and along the seashore, there is gcncr-
ally large population. Houses seem
more scarce than they are, because such
Is the roughness Of the surface of those
parts that are sufficiently dry to build
houses on that half the cabins cannot
be seen until one is within a few yards
OF them. Lime seems rare In Come
mara, and consequently few of the
houses are whitewashed They are gen.
orally built of rough boulders, and too
often seem to have had no pains taken
to make them either comfortable or at
tractive aDOdes; for with all the indus
try of the Connemara peasant farmer he
is generally poor. To pay any rent at
all for the land he tries to live off seems
IN many cases a hardship for such is it's
general sterlity, coldness, wetness and
utter worthlessness that to get even a
scanty living from 1t without having to
!, pay any rent at all would seem as much
as could be expected from those who
have to cultivate it.
There seems to be. however, a great
deal of land in Connemara that might
be made to yield a great deal more pro-
fit than it yields at present. The fiat
parts of it are for the greater part alb
sOlutely useless, but almost all the high
lands are covered with luxuriant
growth of grass and heather. These
high lands are quite different from the
mountains of Dublin and Wicklow
where there is only one stem of grass
for ten of heath. In Connemara things
are reversed, for the grass is much more
plentiful than the heath. All it's noun
tains and high lands, with the exception
Of the Twelve Pinns, whose SUBMITS
seem a mass Of bare rocks nave grass
up to their tops. 1t is coarse grass but
there is such an abundance of it that
one wonders there are not more sheen
and cattle to De seen. 1t would Strike
a stranger that Connclnara could feed
five times more stock than there is in
it, farmer with hundreds of acres of
mountain will have usually not more
than four or five head of cattle and a
score of sheep. One reason of this an
parent scarcity of live stock in Come,
| mara ic tho dif}ir,,l&v ,f