A YEAR OP LIBERTY ; OR, :..) 



every hour in the fresh stream. I believe there are no better twenty 

 yards of trout water in Ireland than that space above the shingles : 

 there may be, I can only say I never found it. 



Let no man visit Waterville in July with the hope of catching 

 grilse. The lake is a trout lake, and nothing more. It is only fair, 

 however, to say, that a friend, of whose skill and veracity I entertain 

 a high opinion, dissents from this statement, and declares he has 

 occasionally taken two or three peel in a single day on the lake. Of 

 course this may always be on the cards ; still the run of summer fish 

 is far too small to offer a reasonable chance of anything worthy the 

 name of sport. 



In a previous visit we arrived early in June, and remained till the 

 end of September, and in that time I never killed one, nor saw 

 anyone else do so. On every breezy day, a red salmon or two would 

 come at the fly, just to say, " How do you do ?" and then, with a 

 scornful wave of his tail, depart as free as he came. I mention these 

 matters here, as we shall have no time to visit Ourrane in the 

 summer, though, if we pass this way again during the late autumn 

 rains, I hope to spend a day or two with my old friend the 

 Inny, and also visit Lakes Derryana and Elaianane. These two 

 musical words, are spelt, after the local pronunciation, and not 

 according to the Ordnance survey. All this, however, is in 

 advance of my subject, so we will try back, and look for our 

 " maiden trout." 



My old friend's statement, that the water at times like the present 

 was full of these creatures, was soon shown to be correct. In the 

 flat, between the bridge and the weirs, I killed a score and a half, 

 and might have filled the basket had his theory been more conclusive. 

 In short, I was suffering from an unwonted attack of conscience, and 

 was tormented with frightful suspicions of murdering *' water babies,'* 

 w^andering from home for the first time. 



Do men ever profit by the experience of others ? Not often, I 

 fancy, though they may sometimes learn a lesson, when the good 

 fairies are pinching them for their sins. Now, gentlemen, after these 

 general moral observations, fancying myself once more seated in the 



P ? 



