184 A YEAE OF LIBERTY ; OR, 



over and over on the surface, beating tlie water into a sheet of foam. 

 Ere a minute elapsed, Pat got a chance, slipped the gaff into his 

 side, and all danger of a foul was over. The veteran cast a grim 

 look at the offending party. " I forgive you this time, but mind you 

 don't do it again." Meanwhile the wrathful angler was doing his 

 part manfully with a heavy antagonist, who was tugging away far 

 below the surface with a steady perseverance which deserved a better 

 fate. More and more languid grew his efforts, and in less than haK 

 an hour he lay on the water like a log, and was presently gaffed in 

 very workmanlike style by a gentleman whose name need not be 

 recorded. As Willie's practised eye had remarked, he proved an 

 early spring fish, very red, and not in the condition he had been 

 some five months before ; nevertheless, Salter's balance declared that 

 the Colonel's prize weighed nearly 151b. The breeze held up till 

 noon, by which time we had secured six grilse besides the com- 

 mander's "old bird." The alteration in the weather necessitated a 

 change in our mode of fishing ; the flies were laid aside and the 

 trolling tackle produced. My old companion selected a small trout 

 and an artificial minnow, whilst I thought myself fortunate in the 

 possession of the tail of an eel and a light spoon that could spin. 

 Pat had on the previous day declared the quantity of perch to be 

 prodigious, and so we found it. Gliding along the north-west shore, 

 we were kept constantly at work by this beautiful fish, every now 

 and then getting a good one from 2Jlb. to S-Jlb. 



As we passed along, the scenery assumed so wild and desolate a 

 character as well to merit the appellation of sublime. From its 

 western shore Mount Nephin rose abruptly, towering to the height 

 of 2646ft. whilst on either side, peak above peak, all purple and 

 gold, melted away in the distance, here affording a last resting 

 place for the rays of the sinking sun, and there lying sombre and 

 dark in shadow. Like most of the Connaught mountains their sides 

 were checkered with mighty masses of granite, standing out in high 

 relief from the blossoming heather and the deeper foliage of the 

 pines. 



When within a few hundred yards of the low bridge whose single 



