e canoe
round like a top. These primeval boats are made on the island, thrown
together out of fifteen-pennyworth of wood, a few yards of canvas, and
a pitch-pot. They have some virtues. They are cheap, and they will not
sink. The coraghs always come back, even if bottom up. And when they
reach the shore the two occupants (if any) invert the ship, stick a
head in the stem and another in the stern, and carry her home to tea.
This process is apt to puzzle the uninformed visitor, who sees a
strange and fearful animal, like a huge black-beetle, crawling up the
cliffs. He begins to think of "antres huge and deserts vast, and
anthropophagi, and men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders."
He hesitates about landing, but if he be on the Duras, Captain Neal
Delargy, who equally scoffs at big beetles and Home Rule, will
explain, and will accompany him to the tavern on the cliff side, where
they charge ordinary prices for beer and give you bread-and-cheese for
nothing. And yet the Araners profess to be civilised.

In pursuance of his policy of helping the people to help themselves,
Mr. Balfour determined to educate the Araners, and to give them
sufficient help in the matter of boats and tackle to make their
education of some avail. It was useless to give them boats and nets,
for they knew not how to use them, and it is certain that any boat
club on the Birmingham Reservoir, or any tripper who has gone mackerel
fishing in Douglas Bay, could have given these fishermen much valuable
information and instruction. Having once determined to attempt on a
tolerably large scale the establishment of a fresh mackerel and fresh
herring trade with England, Mr. Balfour set about the gigantic and
discouraging task of endeavouring nothing less than the creation of
the local industry. But how were the people to be taught the
management of large boats, and the kind of nets that were used? After
much inquiry, it was decided to subsidise trained crews from other
parts of Ireland to show the local fishermen what earnings might be
theirs, and at the same time to impart needful instruction to the
Connemara and Aran people. It was also arranged to make loans for the
purchase of boats and tackle to such persons as might prove likely to
benefit by them. Accordingly arrangements were made with the crews of
seven Arklow boats to proceed to the Aran Islands, and in order to
indemnify them for the risk of working on an untried fishing ground,
each crew re