er), he adds, "has
completely formed the opinion that the statements in the public
newspapers are by no means exaggerated."[232]

Although Donegal is in the Ulster division of the kingdom, in the famine
time it partook more of the character of a Connaught than an Ulster
county. A gentleman was deputed by the Society of Friends to explore it,
who has given his views upon the Irish Famine with a spirit and feeling
which do him honour as a man and a Christian. Writing from Stranorlar he
says: "This county, like most others in Ireland, belongs to a few large
proprietors, some of them, unhappily, absentees, whose large domains
sometimes extend over whole parishes and baronies, and contain a
population of 8,000 to 12,000. Such, for instance, is the parish of
Templecrone, with a population of 10,000 inhabitants; in which the only
residents above small farmers are, the agent, the protestant clergyman,
the parish priest, a medical man, and perhaps a resident magistrate,
with the superintendent of police and a few small dealers.[233] Writing
from Dunfanaghy in the midst of snow, he says: "A portion of the
district through which we passed this day, as well as the adjoining one,
is, with one exception, the poorest and most destitute in Donegal.
Nothing, indeed, can describe too strongly the dreadful condition of the
people. Many families were living on a single meal of cabbage, and some
even, as we were assured, upon a little seaweed." A highly respectable
merchant of the town called upon this gentleman and assured him that the
small farmers and cottiers had parted with all their pigs and their
fowl; and even their bed clothes and fishing nets had gone for the same
object, the supply of food. He stated that he knew many families of five
to eight persons, who subsisted on 2-1/2 lbs. of oatmeal per day, made
into thin water gruel--about 6 oz. of meal for each! Dunfanaghy is a
little fishing town situated on a bay remarkably adapted for a fishing
population; the sea is teeming with fish of the finest description,
waiting, we might say, to be caught. Many of the inhabitants gain a
portion of their living by this means, but so rude is their tackle, and
so fragile and liable to be upset are their primitive boats or
_coracles_, made of wicker-work, over which sailcloth is stretched, that
they can only venture to sea in fine weather; and thus with food almost
in sight, the people starve, because they have no one to teach them to
build boat