78 A YBAE OP libeety; or, 



This long deep sheet of water is the beau ideal of a "lodge." On 

 all sides rise black basaltic rocks, clothed with tall furze, all 

 golden with ten thousand blossoms, whilst bluebells and primroses 

 make the dark glen glittre like a garden. The river here is wide, 

 and, as may be imagined, the angling difficult, for each cast must be 

 parallel to the bank, and sent by a turn of the wrist in the direction 

 required. At the neck of the pool huge boulders rear their bald 

 heads, among which I rose, hooked, and lost two fish. A few yards 

 below lays a flat rock just submerged : here the sport was admi- 

 rable, as in the shortest time that such a thing could be done, 

 three salmon were landed and a fourth bungled. Over the rest 

 of the throw the fish rose at intervals till evening ; two more were 

 pricked, and three played close up to the gaff and lost, at which you 

 may be sure fearful growls were uttered ; nor were we consoled by 

 the seven salmon, which made our backs ache horribly before they 

 were laid out for inspection on the grass plat of the cottage. 



Cruel fate had still something in store for us, as the evening mail 

 brought a letter from a friend at Lismore, an admirable angler, and 

 a gentleman whose word is better than the bond of most other men. 

 It ran as follows : 



" My dear old fellow, You ask me what we are doing here. Here, where 

 you vowed to astonish the natives, and where you certainly distinguished your- 

 self in a remarkable way during the late blessed month of February, we are 

 doing nothing ; but didn't I tell you they would have a glorious time of it in 

 CO. Cork ? Between this place and Mallow the river swarms with fish, the best 

 streams are very strictly preserved. Cross-fishing is practised to a large 

 extent, and some weeks the average has been so much as fourteen salmon per day to 

 each rod on some of the flats near Fermoy. I only give you this information 

 from hearsay, but I consider it reliable. Some of the stands are rented from 

 the farmers on the banks, and on others, the holders employ men for cross- 

 fishing as a matter of profit." 



Hang the letter. It was gall and wormwood. Fancy twenty- 

 eight salmon per day to a cross-line. Why, it would at least equal 

 twelve or thirteen to the fair angler ; and such fish. Unwillingly I 

 left the Blackwater, and would have remained, had not inexorable 

 fate driven me half over the island. But, if I live till next spring, 



