a maritime county in the province of Connaught in Ireland, is bounded on the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean, on the east by the counties of Sligo and Roscommon, and on the south by that of Galway. Its greatest length from north to south is 60 miles, and its greatest breadth, measured from Lough Gara to the western extremity of the Mullet is nearly 75; comprehending a surface of 1,365,048 acres, of which 871,984 are capable of cultivation, 425,124 are bog or irreclaimable mountain, and 57,940 are under water.

According to Ptolemy the earliest inhabitants of this region were the Nagantu. It was afterwards divided into districts distinguished by the names of the chieftains or principal settlers, of whom those of greatest note were M'William Oughter, O'Maley, McJordan, O'Dondey, and O'M'Philben, to which were subsequently added the Nangles, the Dillons, and others of British descent.

The whole of Connaught except Roscommon, was considered as one county by the English, until the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth, by whom it was made shire ground, and this county then took its name from the monastery of Mayo or Mageo in it. It is now divided into the nine baronies of Burrishoole, Carra, Clanmorris, Costello, Erris, Galten, Kilmaine, Morriss, and Tyrawley.

The appearance of the country varies very much. In the eastern parts it contains extensive plains capable of cultivation, and rising occasionally into hills of moderate height; the western part is wholly mountainous, and covered in most parts with bog, except in some places near the sea, where the soil, unless when covered with drifted sand, is sufficiently fertile. In some parts of the flat country, near Lough Mask, the ground appears like one plain of grey stone, which on a closer examination, is found to consist of parallel layers of rock, rising edgeways out of the ground, and having the intervening furrows filled with a productive soil that throws up an herbage peculiarly grateful to sheep. The principal mountains are Mulreca in the south, 2733 feet high, being the most elevated point in Connaught; and Croagh-patrick, on the southern shore of Clew Bay, 2530 feet high. This mountain is amongst the most celebrated in Ireland, not only for its height and the majestic outline it presents from the various positions whence it can be contemplated, but from the tradition that St. Patrick chose its summit as the place to stand on, when he drove all the venomous reptiles of the island into the sea. Nephin 2640 feet high to the west of Lough Conn, is of a conical form with rugged and steep sides, and is covered with Alpine plants to its summit. Nephin-beg, in its vicinity, is but 1800 feet high. In the same district is the mountain of Berreencurragh 2290 feet high; and more westward Maami-Thomish and Croughletta, each very lofty, though less elevated than the preceding. The rivers which flow from these mountains are small, unless when their body of waters is increased by a violent fall of rain. The principal are the Aull, which is navigable for large boats for five miles from Lough Mask; the Castlebar river, in like manner, navigable for four miles from Lough Lorn; the Owenmore that falls into Black sod bay; the Deel, the Robe, the Errive, and the Carnamart. The Moy, which separates this county from Sligo, is navigable to Killulla for vessels of fifty tons. The Blackwater, which is the boundary on the south, is remarkable for having an underground course of some miles near its embouchure into Lough Corrib. Amongst the numerous lakes, Lough Mask situated in the south, and separated from Lough Corrib by a narrow isthmus, is the largest. It is ten miles long by four broad, but its southern extremity is included in Galway county. Lough Carra to the north-east of Lough Mask, is a very picturesque sheet of water, as is Lough Raheens, called also Castlebar Lough from the town in its vicinity; and Lough Lorn, still farther north, is a fine sheet of water fifteen miles long, but of very inconsiderable breadth. The minor lakes are numerous, and there are several tur- loughs in which the water collects in winter but is carried off by a natural drainage at the beginning of summer.

The western and northern coasts are indented with numer- ous bays and creeks. Killery bay that separates Mayo from Galway is a great station for the herring fishery. Proceeding northwards, the next inlet in order, and the most worthy of note for extent and grandeur of scenery, is Clew bay, protected at its entrance by Clare island, and having in its interior the two harbours of Newport and Westport, besides many creeks and roadsteads caused by the almost innumerable islets with which its eastern coast is studded. Blacksod bay and Broadhaven form the peninsula of the Mullet, and are prevented from blending their waters only by the very narrow isthmus of Bellmullet. On the northern coast are Dunfinney and Killalla bays. The lesser indentations of the coast affording shelter for small craft, and therefore of much importance to the fisheries, are too numerous to admit of specific detail.

The principal island is that of Achill. It is the largest on the Irish coast, containing 28,640 acres, and 3767 souls; and is formed partly of lofty hills and partly of flat bogs. The western side presents a rugged and precipitous line of rock, to resist the violence of the Atlantic, interrupted only by a few small coves scarcely capable of sheltering the smallest boats; the eastern coast affords shelter almost everywhere. Clare island is of a triangular form, and has about 1400 inhabitants. Inisbofin, the most important island on the coast as respects the fisheries, is about four miles from Connemara in Galway; it had a garrison in the time of the republic. The finest cod-bank on the Irish coast lies near it. Enniskerrig lies midway between the two last named islands. The want of a landing place renders it nearly useless, notwithstanding its advantageous position for fishing. It comprehends 3500 acres of poor soil and rock, and 456 inhabitants. The lesser islands are scarcely of sufficient consequence to deserve enumeration.

The returns of the population of the county, taken at different periods, present the following results:

| Year | Authority | Population | |------|-----------|------------| | 1760 | De Burgo | 77,508 | | 1792 | Beaumont | 140,000 | | 1812 | Parliamentary return | 261,821 | | 1821 | The like | 293,111 | | 1831 | The like | 367,956 |

The latest of these returns gives an average of one inhabitant to every 3½ acres of the whole county, and of one inhabitant to every 2½ acres of its cultivated portion. As far as may be conjectured from the relative numbers of Protestant and Catholic children attending public schools in 1824–26, the proportion between the sects is upwards of seven to one in favour of the latter persuasion.

The returns of the numbers educated are as follow:

| Boys | Girls | Sex not ascertained | Total | |------|-------|---------------------|-------| | 1821 | 6,150 | 3,185 | 9,335 | | 1824–6 | 10,827 | 5,172 | 16,993 |

Of the numbers in the latter return, 1900 were Protestants, and 14,184 Catholics; the religion of the remaining 609 not having been ascertained. The number of schools was 341. Thirty-six of these, containing 2872 pupils, were supported by grants of public money; ninety-one, containing 5291 pupils, by voluntary contributions; and the remaining 214 schools, which afforded instruction to 8530 pupils, were maintained by the fees of those instructed.

The county was represented in the Irish parliament by four members, two for the county at large, and two for the borough of Castlebar; but the two latter were struck off at the Union, and no alteration having been since made under the reform act, the number of representatives is now limited to two. The state of the constituency, as affected by the changes made in the qualifications for freeholders since 1829, is shewn in the following table:

| L.50 | L.20 | L.10 | 40s. | Total | |------|------|------|------|-------| | 1st Jan. 1829 | 503 | 242 | —— | 23,672 | 24,417 | | 1st Jan. 1830 | 536 | 322 | 197 | —— | 955 | | 1st May, 1831 | 583 | 346 | 335 | —— | 1264 |

The civil power for maintaining the peace of the county, and enforcing the decisions of the judicial and magisterial authorities, consists of nine chief and 173 petty constables, and is maintained at an expense of £7707, or at the rate of somewhat less than £40 per man. Under the new constabulary act the county police is to consist of a sub-inspector, nine chief constables, eighteen sub-constables, and 144 constables and sub-constables.

The number of resident landed proprietors are few in comparison with the extent of the county. The condition of the peasantry varies considerably, according to their situation. On the sea-coast, where the occupation of fishing can be combined with that of agriculture, the people are tolerably comfortable. This is particularly the case in the district around Killalla, Westflat, Newport, and other places where an export trade is carried on. It is observed that early and improvident marriages are by no means common in those parts. Young men are anxious to be provided with sufficient means before they venture upon the charge of a family. Similar appearances of comfort and prudence are observable in the inland eastern districts where agriculture is attended to. In the mountainous and boggy tracts the state of the peasantry is very deplorable. The houses are of the poorest description, and extremely confined in dimensions. The children are seen about the doors of the hovels in a state of nudity, and apparently regardless of the changes of the weather. But in the agricultural districts the case is different. In these the houses are of stone and mortar, with a chimney, and separate apartments. The men dress in home-made frieze, of a dark colour; and the women mostly in cheap cottons. The fuel is universally turf; the food potatoes, with milk occasionally, and, when near the shore, fish. The Irish language is in general use. In the inland and more retired parts the peasantry prefer collecting themselves in closely-built irregular villages to living in detached cottages. The custom of holding large tracts of land in joint-tenancy, which is the favourite tenure in the pasturable regions, may be considered as the chief cause of this practice. The inhabitants of each village form a community amongst themselves, little connected with those around, and regulate their common concerns by a code of laws of their own framing, from which appeals are at times made to the landlord or his agent, or else, though less frequently, to the magistrates at sessions, or to the superior courts.

The soil in the plain country is chiefly a gravelly loam, on a limestone bottom. Even in the tracts where bog prevails, ridges of limestone gravel, called eskers, of a mile and more in length, several perches broad, and from forty to fifty feet high, are to be met with. The rocky pastures produce a nutritive herbage for sheep and young cattle; and in places from which these are excluded, timber trees throw up their shoots spontaneously. Wheat is grown in large quantities in the southern and eastern baronies; oats, barley, and flax in the hilly country. Where limestone can be had it is the favourite manure, either alone or in a compost with other substances. Where it cannot be procured, recourse is had to burning. Shelly sea-sand, and sea-weed thrown up by the high winds, are much used on the coast. The implements of agriculture are still of a clumsy and coarse make. The spade, here called a loy, having a rest for the right foot only, is substituted for the plough in the mountainous parts. In Erris a spade with a blade forking out into two points, is used where the soil is rocky. The fences are mostly dry-stone walls, formed by collecting the loose stones from the surface, where they are so abundant that the fences made of them present the appearance of ramparts rather than enclosures against trespassing. The cattle are mostly of the long-horned breed. They are seldom congregated in large dairies, but most of the small farmers have one or more cows. The sheep and swine are chiefly of the common country breed. Towards the close of the last century planting, both for ornament in demesnes, and on a more extensive scale for profit, has been much attended to. The base of Croagh-patrick is finely fringed with wood, as is that of Nephin. The neighbourhood of Westport is much improved by the extensive plantations of the proprietor of the soil. The baronies of Tyrawley, Burrishoole, Galen, and Costello, are mostly destitute of timber.

The manufactures are almost wholly confined to articles in demand for home consumption, such as linens, furs, flannels, woollen stockings, and straw hats. The chief marts for the sale of the superabundant produce are Castlebar and Westport. Besides these legal sources of profit from manufactures illicit distillation is carried on to a great extent, and is one of the chief causes of the large supplies of grain in the markets of the interior. The exports are grain, fish, and kelp; large quantities of the latter are manufactured on the shores. Fishing banks are numerous. The principal one between Innisbofin and Achil affords an inexhaustible supply of white fish. Near Achil is a sand-bank stocked with quantities of turbot and other flat fish which are also taken in abundance off Killalla bay. Near Inniskea island is a great ling bank. The sun-fish or basking-shark is taken from five to eight leagues from the coast. The fishery commences in the last week in April. The fish is taken with a harpoon of peculiar construction; but as the success of the season depends on the state of the weather, which is very liable to sudden and violent squalls at that season, and as the fish frequently escapes bearing away with it the harpoon and tackle, the average profits, during a continuance of seasons, seldom compensates the adventurer for his outlay of capital and labour. The herring fishery also occupies a number of hands. The whole fishing trade is carried on in open boats, as this description of craft is less expensive and better adapted for the costing trade in kelp and turf in which it is employed during the intervals of the fishing seasons. The deep sea fishing begins in May, that of the herring in August. The winter fishing continues from November to Christmas. Pollock, whiting, sand-eels, and shell-fish are caught along the shores, and there are salmon fisheries at Newport, Burrishoole, Killery, Belclare, and Louisburgh.

The remains of ancient buildings are numerous, and many of them highly worthy of note. There are round or pillar towers at Killalla, Turlogh, Meeleck, and Bal; but the first is the loftiest and best preserved. The abbey of Mayo, which gives name to the county, was once the site of a bishop's see. Moyne abbey, near Killalla, still exhibits some arches of magnificent size and workmanship. The steeple rises not less than an hundred feet from the top of the centre of the church. The ruins of Rosserick abbey, in the same neighbourhood, are amongst the finest specimens of monastic building in these parts. The workmanship of an arch in the centre of the church is peculiarly admirable. Although Ballyhaunis abbey is much dilapidated, the remains of its ruins show it to have been, as it were, a miniature resemblance of that of Moyne. At Ballinrobe was the abbey De Roba, of which no traces are now visible. Ballintober abbey, not far distant from it, was founded by Cathal O'Connor, king of Connaught. The abbey of Burrishoole owes its origin to the Bourke family; its site is the place for holding a patron in honour of St. Dominic. The walls of the church of Strade abbey on the Moy still exist; they are singularly beautiful, and near the altar are several curious sculptures. Cross, or Holycross monastery, was in the peninsula of the Mullet. The abbey of Bophin was built in the island of Innisbofin. Many relics of other monastic buildings of inferior note are to be found in various parts. The remains of ancient castles and places of strength are also numerous. At Downpatrick, or Dunbriste, are the ruins of a strong castle on a cliff three hundred feet high projecting into the sea. A rock of equal elevation rises at about the same distance from the shore, on which are also the traces of castellated buildings. The correspondence of the prominences and indentations of the rocks on each side of the cleft that separates these structures prove that they were once united. It is now a place of penance. Rockfleet castle, near Newport, is said to have been built by the celebrated Grace O'Malley, to whom the erection of several other fortresses along the coast are attributed. This singular woman was so much attached to the sea, the scene of most of her exploits, that when on shore, she is said to have had her bark moored to her bedpost through a window of the castle where she slept. Ballylanan castle was built by one of the Jordan family, who built ten others of similar construction for his ten sons. Deel castle, near Ballina, stands as yet five hundred feet, and inhabitable. In Lough Conn are the ruins of a fort in which O'Conor, king of Ireland, is said to have confined his son. The smaller castles, vestiges of which are visible in many parts, are almost invariably square buildings with a narrow entrance and a few contracted windows, erected solely for security, without any regard to architectural beauty.

The towns in this extensive county are few and small. The population of Castlebar, in which the assizes are held alternately with Ballinrobe, and which is considered as the county town, amounts only to 6,373 souls. Its situation is central; and its general appearance indicates wealth and prosperity. A green area studded with trees in the middle of the town forms a mall or public promenade. The great street is nearly a mile long; and two bridges cross the river which flows from Rahoonlake. The ancient castle, whence the town derives its name, and which has been converted into a barrack, stands on an eminence. The court house is a respectable structure; and the county jail is in this town. In it is also a charter school built by the Earl of Lucan, the proprietor of the place, whose castle, an antique edifice of commanding appearance, stands on a neighbouring hill in the middle of a demesne sloping down to the river. The other public buildings are a church, a Catholic chapel, a meeting house, a barrack for cavalry, an infirmary, and a linen hall, in which last named building a good trade is carried on. The market day is held on Saturday. This town was the scene of a battle between the French under Humbert and the king's forces in 1798, after which the former kept possession of it from the 26th of August to the 4th of September. Ballinrobe, the other assize town, contains only 2,575 inhabitants. It takes its name from the river Robe on which it is built. Its only places of note are the castle, formerly the residence of Lord Tyrawley, now a barrack, the new barrack, the ruins of the abbey, and the school house. The population of the other towns, whose numbers exceed 1,000 each, is as follow: Mayo, one of the Cape de Verd Islands, situated in the Atlantic Ocean, near 300 miles from Cape Verd in Africa, is about 21 miles in circumference, Long. 23° 8' W., Lat. 15° 10' N. The shore affords good anchorage in the sandy bays between the promontories; it possesses but one spring which rises near its centre, the water of which runs off in a small stream through a valley confined by hills. The soil is indebted to the nightly dew and the showers that fall in the wet season for the only humidity which it receives, and is consequently dry and barren. There are three small towns in the island, the principal of which is called Pinosa. The chief commodity for export is salt, great quantities of which are gathered from the bays and ponds during the dry seasons. On the west side of the island is a large salt pond, two miles long and half a mile in breadth. The surrounding sea abounds in great varieties of fish; the principal fruits are figs, water melons, citrons, and oranges, and a kind of bean which forms a large part of the ordinary diet of the natives. The population is estimated at about 7000.