86 A YEAR OF LIBERTY ; OR, 



It is only a short run by rail to MuUingar, on the platform of 

 which two smiling faces greeted us. Little Mary had taken a lodging, 

 and Willie had engaged a boat ; the fly was ''up/' and all promised 

 fair for the morrow. 



The Green Drake lakes are arranged into two great groups in the 

 counties Westmeath and Sligo. In the former are Belvidere, Lough 

 Owel,, and Dereveragh, cum multis aliis ; in the latter, Loughs Arrow 

 and Gara, and in Roscommon, Lough Ken. It is not asserted that 

 these are the sole waters on which the fly appears very far from it ; 

 but only that they hold a prominent place. For the Sligo lakes 

 Boyle may be considered a central station ; for Belvidere and Lough 

 Owel, our present quarters ; for Dereveragh and the more northern 

 ones, Castle Pollard ; not that either Boyle or Mullingar are in close 

 proximity to their respective waters, for Belvidere, on which the fly 

 rises soonest, is above two miles from the town, and Lough Owel, on 

 which the drake appears latest, is still farther off. This, however, 

 is of small importance, as early fishing is useless, our fair friends not 

 being up and dressed for the fluttering, flirting business of the day, 

 before 10 a.m. Nor am I prepared to say the distance is accurately 

 stated, though I have walked it morning and evening some score of 

 times at any rate, the stroll is a pleasant one on a bright morning 

 in the merry month of May. 



Here, fine weather will not ruin us ; nay, more, in some sort, it 

 may do us good, by bringing us larger flights of the beautiful 

 creatures on whom our sport depends. 



The mode of angling with the "blow line " is so delicate, natural, 

 and deadly, that the trout have no means of judging between what 

 is digestible and what injurious. Even you, my dear sir, if six 

 inches under water, taking your morning meal, would be quite as 

 likely to select the wrong dish as the right one. 



