SALMON ANOLINQ IN IRELAND. 41 



reigned supreme. All this, and mucli more, we saw from the tower. 

 Getting up was an easy affair, but coming down was altogether a new 

 sensation. I would not wish my worst enemy a worse cramp. I 

 could have outroared Caliban. 



Before starting for Doonass we must pay a visit to O'Shauglinessy. 

 A fortnight ago, sizes and pattern hooks had been sent to him, and 

 the order must now be called for. K you never saw the process, 

 listen, and learn how to make one. We climbed the rickety and 

 dirty stairs, and in an upper room found the old artiste hard at 

 work. 



On a table before him lay several fine triangular files, a few pairs 

 of pliers, a piece of boxwood, and a tray divided into compartments, 

 containing small bars of Swedish iron, of sizes suitable for hooks of 

 every number. Now he takes one of the bars and cuts out the barb ; 

 then turning the iron in his hand, shapes the back. Again he turns 

 the half -finished hook, and carefully completes the barb, giving it a 

 spherical point as fine as a darning needle. Lastly, he puts on his 

 glasses, and carefully examines what has been done, adds a few 

 finishing touches, and with the pliers gives the exact shape accord- 

 ing to pattern, remarking, with a severe glance at the luckless 

 innovator, *' Some gentlemen are a little self-willed, and like to 

 spoil a good thing by their improvements." Nothing now remains 

 to be done but the tempering. I have used these hooks for many 

 years, and have killed salmon with every size, the two largest and 

 two smallest excepted ; as one fracture only occurred, I feel bound 

 to bear testimony to their excellence. The price is high, but when 

 it is remembered they can be used season after season, in a series of 

 new flies, they are cheap at any money. 



Truly the Shannon is something like a river. " Its length and 

 size are unexampled in any island in the world of similar extent." 

 It rises in Lough Allen, runs a race of 240 miles, and is navigable 

 for small craft till within a few miles of its source. Relatively to 

 the magnitude of the country it enriches and beautifies, it seems like 

 a giant bom from a dwarf like the dinornis compared with the Qgg 

 from which it sprung. Large as it is, mighty as are its lakes, innu- 



