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." It is some five miles from
Cape Clear to the town of Skull. The distance is not long, but without
skill and local knowledge the passage is dangerous, for what seems only
a light gale elsewhere makes the sea almost tempestuous among the bluffs
and rocky islands of this wild coast, where many a foundering barque has
been rescued from destruction by the brave and trusty oarsmen of Cape
Clear. Leaving Roaring-water bay to the north-east, and getting in
shelter of the land, a church tower, humble in design and proportions,
rises in the midst of a graveyard, crowded in one part with tombstones,
and almost entirely devoid of them in the other. There rest the mortal
remains of many generations of the people of Skull; but it is especially
worthy of notice as the burial-ground which had to be doubled in size in
order to receive upwards of half the population within its bosom in a
single year; and yet all were not interred there: many found a grave in
the fields nearest to which they died; many others, among the ruins of
their dismantled cabins. This graveyard, looking out upon the restless
waters from its quiet elevation, must remain for ages the most historic
spot in the locality, although Skull is not without a history and
historic remains. Many a castle and stronghold have the O'Mahonys and
O'Donovans built among the crags of the rocky islands, which are grouped
in such variety to seaward, the ruins of which are to-day full of
interest and beauty for the tourist. But surely the day will come when
those crumbling ruins shall be once again a portion of the common soil,
nameless and forgotten; but distant though that day may be, Skull and
Skibbereen, those two famine-slain sisters of