Several of them had
obtained loans under the late Drainage Act, and with this or private
resources are employing large numbers of labourers for the improvement
of their estates. We met with several who had one hundred men employed
in this manner. Many of these landlords, as well as the clergy, are most
assiduously working in all ways in their power. They have imported large
quantities of meal and rice, which they sell at prime cost, there being
in many districts no dealers to supply those articles; and are making
soup at their own houses, and dispensing daily to their famishing
neighbours."[236]
In the South, after Skibbereen, Skull, its neighbour, seems to have
suffered most. To cross from Cape Clear to Skull--partly rowing, partly
sailing--in a stiff breeze is very exciting, and might well cause
apprehension, but for the crew of athletic Cape men, or Capers, as the
people of the mainland call them, in whose hands you have placed your
safety. With them you are perfectly secure. Those hardy, simple-minded
people are as used to the sea as a herdsman is to green fields. Even
when they are not actually upon its stormy bosom, they are usually to be
seen in groups about the little harbour, leaning against the rocks,
quietly smoking their pipes, watching the tide and the weather, and
discussing the proper moment for "going out.
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