SALMON ANGLING IN IRELAND. 165 



three of these " in quasi possession " at the same moment there 

 goes our line, and lo I at the first cast a grilse is hooked. Whilst 

 attending to my own affairs I yet found time to steal a glance at my 

 brethren, who were all masters of the craft careful men of business 

 who felt time to be capital, and so well did they employ the oppor- 

 tunity that in twenty minutes the last prize was secured. In the 

 " Castle hole" we landed a fourth, and rushing through " the Dock," 

 which it was not thought advisable to try, were soon floating over 

 " the Flats." In this portion of the Moy the proximity to the sea is 

 very apparent, large mud banks unmistakably showing a tidal estuary 

 at three quarters ebb. This part of "the ground" often affords 

 admirable sport, but to-day it did not answer, and left us at leisure 

 to look at the world around. From this part of the tideway rise 

 wooded heights of no great elevation, but considerable beauty. 

 Immediately below, a schooner and brig were dozing on the mud, 

 high and dry ; and still farther down the widening river stretched 

 away towards Killala, and threading its path through long sand-banks 

 ^whereon lay many a seal mingled its waters with the Atlantic. 



The Moy runs through a flat, uninteresting country ; but, with 

 every disposition to praise, it is impossible to say much for the 

 meadows which fringe its banks. They cannot be compared for a 

 moment with the enamelled meads which border the Thames or the 

 Somersetshire Avon, yet are they not flowerless, but can show their 

 Caltha, Menyanthes trifoliata, and Nuphar lutea, with the best ; and 

 as for " the lady's smock," so white were the fields that you might 

 have imagined all the feminine linen of the county here spread out 

 to bleach. 



On our way home from " the Flats," at the back of the dock, we 

 put on a cast of trout flies, and were so fortunate as to rise two 

 good white trout, one of which we landed, weighing 31b. The 

 Bunree, a small tributary bearing a high character during the 

 autumn spates, falls into the estuary at this point. Desirous of 

 seeing it, I strolled for some distance along its stony channel, and 

 could easily believe that, with three feet of amber- coloured water 

 filling its bed, and leaping over many a ledge of rock, the little 



