SALMON ANOLlNa IN IEELAND. 11 



Our visit to Lismore is ovor. The three weeks spent here have 

 been a dead faihire, produced, strangely enough, by the improvements 

 resulting from the Act of 18G2, which, after careful examination, 

 swept away the stake-nets from the estuary, and made a Queen's gap. 



The reader will naturally say, all the salmon hitherto stopped by 

 the twenty-eight defunct stake-nets must have come into the river, 

 and nearly doubled the number of fish. Of course they came ; but, 

 alas ! they did not take lodgings, but were, I regret to say, little 

 better than tramps. Such is the fact ; but it is not always easy to 

 account for facts. Previous to this season the Blackwater, from tho 

 weirs to the tideway, was, in my opinion, if not the best, at least 

 equal to any spring water in Ireland ; and in support of this opinion 

 I may mention that in one throw alone (the Scholar), not a hundred 

 years ago, we landed sixty-two spring fish in little over ten consecu- 

 tive weeks. It may be taken for granted that none of these sailed 

 up to the weirs to ask if the door was open or shut, for ascending 

 fish never return from the highest point they have reached, unless 

 short of water. In fact, they lodged, not from necessity, but choice. 

 And why have they not done so this season ? Most probably because 

 the increased flow of water, or alteration in the direction of the current, 

 has pulled down their houses, without having yet found time to 

 build new ones. 



That the injury to this beautiful lower water is permanent I can- 

 not believe. Let us hope that, like our navy, it is in a transition 

 state, and will soon come out all the better for our glorious new 

 fishery law. Of course, the upper waters have vastly improved, and 

 the long-suffering proprietors at length enjoy their own. In the 

 mean time we must wait, and I believe we shall not have to wait long 

 before we see the lower pools regain their late excellence, and outdo 

 their fonner gi'eat outdoings. 



