138 Sporting Sketches in Pen and Pencil. 



" That wouldn't hurt you, I'm sure ; but how did you get fighting, then ?" 



"Ah, sure, y'r hanner, it was nothing, nothing at all," and he fended 

 off very strongly from entering on the cause of the dispute ; I, however, 

 pressed him, being curious, and at last he said : 



" Ah, thin, faith, it was Mike said that the captain was a better fisher 

 than y'r hanner, an' I hot him in the eye, for it's a lie ; there's not a better 

 fisherman in the place than y'r hanner." 



My companion, who happened to be with me at this time, was not only 

 an indifferent fisherman but a most obstinate man. He has long been dead, 

 so I may say thus much. He did not know how to handle a fish himself, 

 and would not let anyone advise him, and if his attendant ventured to tell 

 him to do one thing, he would do the reverse. If told to hold hard he'd let 

 go, and if to let go, he would hold hard; and, though he had the luck 

 to hook many more fish than I did, who brought home one or two every day, 

 he never contrived to land one, but got broke, and let fish go in all 

 manner of ways, until at last his gaffsman got so disgusted that he threw 

 up his gaff and refused to go out with him any more. He couldn't stand it, 

 and no wages would induce him to. 



These men were not only keen and independent, but they were full 

 of quaint humour ; many of their jokes were very sharp. There was a 

 person fishing there who, though a wealthy man, was exceedingly mean in 

 all matters. Now, these men are not, or were not, when I knew them, 

 at all greedy or imposing, but, like most Irishmen, they desperately 

 hated a mean man. This gentleman would take the ferryman to row him 

 all over one of the biggest throws, and give him twopence for his trouble, 

 where everyone else would give perhaps a shilling. He was fishing with a 

 local cobbler for an attendant one day, for none of the regular gaffers would 

 go with him. He was fishing the " Point of the Mullens," a very fine 

 cast, and just behind him were a lot of young larches, on the top 

 branches of which he kept hitching up his fly, which the cobbler had 

 to speel up for and unloose about every ten minutes. He had just 

 given the ferryman 2d. for rowing him over the throw ; and the following 

 dialogue with another party who came up on the other side took place, 

 right under the gentleman's nose : 



