f?ALMON ANQLINO IN IRELAND. 3 



watt^r to niv dressiiig-room between the thumb and forefinger of 

 liis left hand was a fly read}' for winging. 



< You are early at work." 



"Ned Ray has been here this half -hour, sir ; we have been to the 

 river, and our flies are rather large for the water." 



I had studied the face before me years enough to read it with 

 tolerable accuracy there was something wrong. "Well, what /.s^ 

 the matter ?" 



"I seen it this moniing, and don't like it." 



"Seen it seen what? Where was it? What was it like? What 

 on earth do you mean ? ' ' 



" Tlie pools, master 'twas the pools I seen, and they a'n't as they 

 used to be." 



" Nonsense, Willie ; you know that twenty-eight stake-nets out of 

 thirty are gone from the estuary of course there must be double the 

 number of fish; so make haste and get breakfast." We were soon 

 out. The distance to the river, though only a few hundred yards, 

 will yet afford time to say something of the fish before we get there. 

 Besides clean and foul salmon, the Blackwater, now and for the next 

 six or seven weeks, holds large numbers of fine fish, neither foul nor 

 fair, coming up to spawn. These are of all shades in short, they 

 are exactly in the condition of those which you and I, to our shame 

 be it said, killed in August and September last. So far as my ex- 

 perience goes, no other spring river in Ireland holds salmon at this 

 season in a similar condition. In other waters an occasional gravid 

 fish may be seen in March ; here they are not the exception, but the 

 rule, and are, at least below the weirs, invariably returaed safe and 

 sound from whence they came. Well, here we are at the end of 

 the lane, and with wonderful unanimity, turn to the "Scholar's 

 Throw," for its length the best piece of spring water in Ireland- 

 such, at least, I have hitherto found it. Behind, the ground rises 

 abruptly, clothed with brush and forest trees a combination more 

 charming to the artist than the angler and here my attendant, two 

 or three seasons since, attained considerable proficienc}' in the art of 

 climbing, but subsequently lost it from want of practice. 



B 2 



