SALMON ANGLING IN IRELAND. f)^ 



despair darkens those famished faces, as the vessel reels back from 

 the barrier. But another, with a freshening breeze, and the last of 

 the flood, comes on gallantly. Will she, too, fail ? No ; the stranded 

 leader has done her work, and that wild shout, '-We are saved," 

 tells the triumph. 



The tide flows as far as Strabane, through a rich, reedy, alluvial 

 flat, so sleepy and quiet that an alligator or hippopotamus dozing on 

 the mud would hardly be out of place. The rivers Finn and Moume 

 flow into it at Lifford, and ought to be capital angling streams. I 

 never fished either the one or the other. 



Below Culmore point, Lough Foyle spreads out her waters 

 gloriously. On the western shore, the Innishowen mountains (whose 

 inhabitants formerly drank their com instead of eating it) rise in 

 magnificent confusion almost from the water's edge. Handsome villas 

 speak well for honest Derry. Fast little cutters, gay with bunting, 

 flit over the tide, and at the mouth of the lough, where the entrance 

 is scarcely wider than half rifle range, stand the ruins of Green 

 Castle, once an important place, now solitary and deserted, but very 

 beautiful. Dear old ruins, from which I can see my own cottage, 

 near the Giant's Causeway. Well, home is home, after all if you 

 don't have too much of it. 



We shall go to Rathmelton with a diminished party, as Willie 

 leaves us here to fit out our little schooner, and see that she looks 

 her best when we amve. The Pet is the pride of his heart, and he 

 is chief mate. I do not like to part with him, even for a day; 

 something is always wanting, which no one else can do as well. 

 Man and boy, we have roamed about the world many a year 

 together. 



Well, faithful friend, good bye. The poor fellow looks as if he 

 had a bad cold, for his eyes we must not disgrace his manhood, as 

 he wears a beard they are usually weak at such times ; and so it 

 came to pass that we trotted off towards Lough Swilly rather 

 dolefully. 



This noble sheet of water always strikes me as inexpressibly 

 solitary and desolate. Large enough to hold all the war fleets of 



