SALMON ANGLING IN IRELAND. 187 



Head on the west, this district extends forty English miles ; and 

 from the head of Killery Harbour on the north, to the bay of Galway 

 on the south, thirty miles. 



This wild tract reaches its greatest altitude in the range known 

 as the Twelve Pins of Bunnabola. This mountain group rises 

 abruptly from a table-land of moderate elevation, and forms a 

 picture few can behold without emotion. By night or day, in storm 

 or sunshine, this glorious band, whether clad in thin misty mantles 

 or spreading their purple breasts to the autumn sun, are equally 

 beautiful ; elemental changes sweep over them like emotions over 

 some face we love to look on, ever varying but never marring its 

 loveliness. Bound their bases are numerous lakes, of which the 

 chief are Lough Ina ; the upper and lower lakes of Ballinahinch 

 skirting their southern slopes and Kylemore, away to the north- 

 west. Although the whole of this tract is generally known as 

 Connemara, it is properly divided into three districts, that portion 

 lying between the head of the Killeries and Lough Corrib being 

 termed " Joyce's Country ; " that to the south of the Pins, Jar 

 Connaught, or Western Connaught ; and the remainder, extending 

 westward from Bunnabola to the Atlantic, constituting Connemara 

 proper. Nothing of this extensive tract is known to the general 

 mass of tourists, who follow each other like a string of wild ducks 

 along the high road from Galway to Clifden, and from Clifden to 

 Westport ; and yet to my mind the whole world offers nothing more 

 solitary, nothing more interesting. If this be so to the ordinary 

 tourist, what must a ramble in such a region afford to the angler ? 

 All the charms of solitude and novelty are his, and I know few 

 feelings more intense than those which spring up in a man's breast 

 as he stands for the first time by some unknown mountain lake or 

 brawling river, and, out of sight of humanity, prepares for a day 

 after his own heart. For my part I soon grow sick of the world.; a 

 little goes a great way with me ; it is a dish spiced with condiments 

 all too stimulating for my appetite ; the rivalries, the meannesses, 

 the petty jealousies, and the dirty tricks do not suit me they bring 

 on dyspepsia. In the mountains I never had a fit of indigestion in 



