126 A YEAR OF liberty; OE, 



differs from most of the other streams in the kingdom. In one, 

 during the hot months, sport becomes impracticable from want of 

 water ; in another, wind is a sine qua non ; in a third, not a fish 

 will move unless the day be dull, dark, and breezy ; whilst a fourth 

 may have an obstinate predilection for becoming flooded on the 

 smallest provocation. But here, whether the season be dry or wet, 

 about an equal number of " throws" are always in order. Summer 

 floods (in the usual acceptation of the word) are unknown ; sun, 

 wind, and clouds are things of comparatively little moment, and 

 every morning ushers in a fishing day. In fact. Lough Erne has 

 its summer and winter level, from which it rarely varies, rising 

 periodically during the latter season, in the ratio of the rains. 

 This, of course, regulates the height of the river ; but the lake is 

 so enormous, and the tract of country whose drainage it receives 

 so extensive, that in the driest summers the volume of water 

 discharged is always great. "Our pet" possesses another virtue, 

 that of being seldom discoloured, as all the large tributaries lay near 

 the head of this inland sea, in which the rude mountain torrents 

 grow quite genteel and refined, long ere their waters reach Beleek. 

 Desperate and long continued storms may occasionally shade the 

 Erne, but even then a fish may be killed ; and at the worst a few 

 hours will restore it to its pristine brightness. 



A society so respectable as the Piscatorial Eepublic on the banks 

 of the Erne could not, of course, exist without a code for its own 

 special government. All questions of right or etiquette that arise 

 are settled by reference to a lex non scripta, in which our sporting 

 attendants are well versed. Unlike other jurisconsults, their 

 decisions are uniformly governed by sense and justice ; and as the 

 laws are seldom strained to suit private purposes, appeal to higher 

 authority is rarely necessary ; peace and harmony prevail, and we 

 form, in fact, a model state. By one of these traditional rules any 

 angler who first occupies a lodge may retain it a discretion, and as 

 the casts are well defined, each subsequent comer passes on to the 

 next he may find vacant 



The heat is awful ; to be out in such a day would almost justify 



