SALMON ANGLlNa IN IfiELAND. 27 



CHAPTER VI. 



Watorvillo Concerning tho Lake -How wo got there and what we did. 



The mail-car from Killarncy to Watferville stops daily at our door, 

 and, barring accidents, will carry us this evening, the 1 3th of March, 

 to the shores of Lough Currane. This sheet of water, ending at the 

 west end of tho village, is fed by the Cummeragh river, which flows 

 from the smaller lakes of Derriana and Elaineane. 



Lough Currane justly celebrated, not only for its spring salmon, 

 but for a run of trout greater, I believe, than any other open Elysium 

 Piscatorum in L-eland boasts two distinct seasons ; the first from 

 Febiniary to the end of May, the second from the middle of June to 

 the end of October, during which latter period the upper waters are 

 full of fish. 



In the earlier months, for some unknown reason, the salmon, with 

 very rare exceptions, refuse all lures except the troll, which, how- 

 ever, they take freely; but in May a change for the better comes 

 over them, and they rise sportingly at the fly. Spring trout also, 

 from 41b. to 01b., may be taken, but they are a wary race, which, 

 having lived long in this deceitful world, profit by experience. Eed 

 trout are not only numerous, but fine, and m quality second only to 

 those of Westmeath. During the trolling season they add a weighty 

 item to the creel. 



When I first visited Waterville, Jerry Quirk reigned in a gi-and 

 Hibernian hotel at the eastern extremity of the village, where many 

 a night I have gone to bed with the poker, as ofifering some slight 

 protection against the said Jerry's nocturnal pleasantries. But this 

 mode of exercising hospitality exists no longer, since Mr. Quirk 

 emigi'ated to the States, where, for anything I know, he enlisted in 

 M'Mahon's brigade, and there gained high renown for brewing 

 whisky punch and breaking heads; 



