SALMON ANaLINQ IN IRELAND. 191 



fond of the cold element ; externally, I hold the application of tepid 

 water to the surface of the human body, not only agreeable, but 

 useful in the highest degree ; but to put my foot voluntarily into hot 

 water is what I do not like. 



Well, once on a time '*' the angling " here was admirable, from the 

 tideway to the weirs, and from the weirs to the lake. In the spring 

 the fishing is chiefly confined to that portion of the water between the 

 salmon steps and the Goal-bridge, but occasionally, if the river becomes 

 low, a few good casts are to be found by wading between the bridge 

 and the cribs. 



Now this portion of the water would afford admirable angling to 

 the sportsman, did not a most ungentlemanly custom of stroke- 

 hauling prevail. This pot-hunting work is so exasperating that the 

 gentlest disciple of Izaak would raise his voice against it. Before 

 setting out from Ballina I had a pretty good notion of the peculiar 

 mode in which " sport " is conducted at Gal way ; but Galway lay in 

 my route, as I wished to see the various club and private waters 

 between that point and the Errive ; so I comforted myself with the 

 knowledge that, if unbearable, we could order a car at any moment, 

 and leave the "sportsmen'' to pursue their avocations in peace. 

 "I was there in March," wrote a friend to whom I applied for 

 information, " and saw amongst other iniquities, one spring fish 

 weighing 27lb. hooked in the vent and hauled out in three minutes. 

 Abo at the middle of April a strong north-west wind blew back the 

 water on the lake and left the fish nearly dry, when the stroke- 

 hauling became so bad that I could stand it no longer." On this 

 subject we will hear another witness. " You ask how we are getting 

 on in this place of ill-fame ; we are now drawing near the end of 

 June, and the continued dry weather has affected us so much, that 

 from the salmon steps to the bridge there is hardly water to cover 

 the fish ; the fly is, of course, out of the question, so I work the 

 tideway in a boat about the distillery wall, and have the pleasure of 



seeing that *real sportsman,' Mr. G , stroke-hauling; no doubt 



he is an adept, as he takes from thirty to forty per day, and 

 sometimes breaks two or three rods another point of excellence 



