SALMON ANa^INO IN IRELAND. 61 



take this fellow in charge, my pocket is picked," would bear quite 

 a different value, and place a strain on your Christian charity 

 sufficiently strong to test its quality. 



Now, they tell me Rathmelton is a town. I should not have 

 thought so, since it does not look at all like one ; but then, you 

 know, it depends on circumstances, for a village in any other country 

 would be a capital city in Donegal, and a Donegal village in another 

 land would be a a curiosity. 



For an idler, Eathmelton would prove a first-rate station. The 

 man does not live who could stand at that inn-door for one morning 

 watching the rain-drops gather on the eaves, with now and then the 

 excitement of a draggle-tailed cock slinking under a cart, and trying 

 in vain to look comfortable. The laziest Saxon on earth would seize 

 his rod and sally forth in the drizale, as I did. 



Donegal is a remarkable county in the matter of rain. Should a 

 cloud from the Atlantic hold but a quart of water, this favoured 

 region is sure to get a pint of it. In point of fact, it has " first 

 choice," and, as the wind blows from the west for nearly half the 

 year, that "first choice" is worth something. A man in a dropsy 

 is always drinking ; this land is anasarcous, and does the same. 



In most of these papers I have endeavoured to give some account 

 of the streams of the neighbourhood ; but Heaven help the man who 

 undertakes the waters of this county. Why, it is all water, except 

 some parts, which are a mixture of water and vegetable mould iu 

 about equal proportions. All the anglers in Britain might here 

 have a station apiece, if they wished it ; there need be no jealousy, 

 gentlemen, I assure you. For several years past I have spent a 

 portion of each autumn in this thirsty land, but know no more of 

 the lakes immediately beyond my route than I did years ago. As 

 his car rolls along through heathery wastes, pieces of water of all 

 sizes meet the traveller's gaze, laying solitary, tempting, and deserted. 

 The majority of these have, probably, never been fished, unless by 

 some chance grouse shooter or a peasant in the \acinity. If the 

 length of the line between Eathmelton and Gweedore, and thence to 

 Donegal, be considered, the number of these lakes is great iijdeed, 



