ELAN LAKES— WILD SOUTH WALES 



transported across the channel, and here also, as on 

 the flat Irish bogs, grouse breed and are shot upon 

 it. It plays the part of a huge sponge, in holding up 

 the storm and flood water, so that a freshet on the 

 Teifi, instead of running off in twenty-four hours 

 with all its fish food as in other similar rivers nowadays, 

 subsides gradually and keeps the fish astir and the 

 angler active for a much longer period after the 

 fashion common to most streams in the days before 

 sub-soil drainage was much in vogue. This gradual 

 subsiding of flood water must obviously economise 

 the food supply, and conduce to a larger stock of fish. 

 At any rate the Teifi contains a very ample one. 

 Most of its middle and lower waters are well preserved ; 

 even in its upper and more or less open ones baskets of 

 twelve pounds are expected and achieved in spring 

 fishing with ordinary skill. I have had fair sport in it 

 myself at the back end, but it is at its best in April. 



Now there is a single line of railroad running north 

 and south through Cardiganshire. It is, or rather was, 

 entitled the Manchester and Milford, or the M and M, 

 perhaps for the reason that it had not the remotest 

 connection with either of those two industrial centres, 

 but was mainly devoted to the conveyance back and 

 forth by an infrequent service of farmers and squires, 

 together with the agricultural produce that supported 

 them both — for millionaires do not buy estates in 

 Cardiganshire. I use the past tense, for I believe the 

 Great Western have now acquired it. I have often 

 travelled by this line in former days, and in the mush- 

 room season it was commonly said that the train would 

 always pull up if a well-sprinkled pasture field excited 

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