SALMON ANOLTNO IN TBELAND. 105 



The reader may like to know that he can be boarded at the 

 Pollard Arms for 21. lis. per week, which includes car-hire to and 

 from the lake each morning and evening. When it is considered 

 that for this sum he has first-rate fishing, bed and sitting rooms, 

 three meals a day, and twelve drives, I think no reasonable man 

 would object to the charge. 



Beautiful Belvidere lay sleeping lazily in the sun, as fresh and fair 

 as when I left her, and as she will do a hundred years hence when 

 some stranger comes to say farewell, as I do now. We have an 

 affection for this water, for it was the first on which our blow-line 

 ever sailed. Often, when hundreds and hundreds of miles away she 

 has visited me, smiling as she now smiles, and that dear familiar 

 face has comforted me in anxiety and soothed me in sorrow. What 

 could a friend do more ? True, like many other early companions, 

 she has not proved " all my fancy painted," for I have since found 

 many more trustworthy. But pray, have not you, sir, some early 

 acquaintance of whom you feel rather ashamed, and long since 

 acknowledged undeserving your regard, to whom you cling, never- 

 theless, merely for the sake of old times? Such weakness is 

 doubtless im worthy a philosopher; but then I make no pretensions 

 to so high a caste, and without shame ?ay, the memory of " young 

 love" is very sweet. After Dereveragh, my quiet friend seemed 

 tame and dull, and at three p.m. I bade her adieu, leaving the men 

 to take the boat to Lough Owel, and bring back " the game" eleven 

 head, no one of which weighed 31b. 



Lough Owel bears little resemblance to her sisters, being sur- 

 rounded by shores far more bold, broken, and bare. Lying in a vast 

 rocky basin, composed probably of limestone, its clearness and 

 purity are remarkable. Over its entire surface myriads of bubbles 

 rise from unknown springs, and, in fact, the lake is one vast fountain 

 of delicious water. This, combined probabljr with the clean bottom, 

 gives the trout the peculiarly silver}'- character that distinguishes 

 them from all others with which I am acquainted. We found our 

 boat drawn up on the south-east comer, near a circular fairylike 

 island, planted with larch and flowering shrubs, and, launching, 



