SALMON ANGLING IN IRELAND. 129 



a charm in angling, the sport here must be enjoyed in its highest 

 perfection, for friendly rivalry, plots, plans to be formed, and designs 

 to be traversed, keep us constantly on the qui vive. Did I relax my 

 watchfulness for a day, another hand was sure to snatch at the reins. 

 Did I fail to take a fish. I was mercifully left in undisturbed pos- 

 session ; but if success attended me, fresh efforts were regularly 

 made to dethrone me on the morrow. 



As a general rule, all the casts on the south correspond with those 

 on the opposite side. There are, however, two exceptions Laputa 

 and the point of the Mullens, both of which belong exclusively to 

 the noi-th shore. Each is excellent, but the latter has a high 

 reputation for holding fish of extraordinary size. That this 

 character is deserved cannot be doubted, and once (I say it with 

 shame) I endured an hour's unutterable anguish whilst watching 



Capt. M kill there a salmon, which weighed between 361b. and 



371b. In this noble river nothing can be done without constant and 

 deep wading, two or three pools only being fishable from the land, 

 but our professionals are amphibious, and as much at home in the 

 pure element as so many ducks. 



Whilst drawing on my boots and getting ready for a turn in " the 

 Row," Willie seats himself under the shade of a friendly thorn, 

 opens the basket, and prepares for half an hour's work. With Pat 

 close at my back, to aid and direct my course, we gain the point 

 whence the stream can be most advantageously commanded. At 

 the third cast a glorious fellow rose and refused the fly, which was 

 allowed to float quietly on, when the line was gathered in by 

 hand, to insure its coming over him again under conditions exactly 

 similar. 



"Wom't he a large one?" asked the artist, who, guessing in- 

 stinctively what had happened, hastily shut his shop, and was now 

 paddling close behind me with " a change." " Shure he icor a 

 big one, for I seen his wave roll up agen the current. Will we try 

 him with this ?" producing his favourite light donkey fur with jungle 

 cockwing. A couple of short casts brought the tackle to its full 

 stretch, and the third sent it light and true to a point from 



K 



