SALMON ANGLING IN IRELAND. 33 



I administered a sharp counter-imtant on the spot, and then dosed 

 him \Yith good advice. 



The oration was touching, and the pith of it was, that though 

 perfect quiet was essential to the success of bottom-fishing in clear 

 water, yet if I found him practising again in his sleep, he might go 



to . I fear I mentioned a gentleman with whom I earnestly 



hope poor John will never take service. 



It was fully eleven o'clock when we set off, and as trout fonned 

 the main object of the expedition, we put out the baits as soon as 

 we had shoved off. How pleasant it was, sweeping round the little 

 bays, and doubling the rocky headlands, now playing a laker, and 

 then listening to the innocent kindly chat of the boatmen. John, 

 having no relapse since the morning, was rapidly recovering his 

 spirits, and in full talk about " a mighty big fish he had once seen 

 caught at the Old Ship.*' Poor Pat had never read the fable of the 

 goose and the golden eggs, and, being only a simple uneducated 

 fellow, did not perceive that if greedy proprietors and bad bog- 

 trotting boys in the dark ages, of course had not so often 

 interrupted Mrs. Salmon in her household duties in dark November 

 nights, and slipped a neat wire grating over the eye of the cutts on 

 Saturday evenings, or sometimes in a fresh, let the breast of the 

 traps fall accidentally after dusk on Sundays, there might still have 

 been a fish as big as he remembers to have seen. In this lake, as in 

 all others, salmon either lodge on certain favourite shores or on 

 rocky reefs, and towards some of these we were slowly making our 

 way. A few fathoms to the south of an elevated rocky islet we had 

 some pretty sport for an hour, landing five r six very nice lakers, 

 and, returning by the Old Ship, ran the only salmon of the day. 

 On feeling the hook our new acquaintance darted towards tlie boat, 

 and then, with a vicious lash of his broad tail (which made an eddy 

 like the sweep of an oar), plunged headlong downwards within a yard 

 of us. 



It was impossible to keep the rod in position, as the line would 

 not run ; so with three or four feet of the top under water, and the 

 butt above my head, the reel all the time groaning as if very bad 



D 



