SALMON ANOLINQ IN IRELAND. 195 



CHAPTEE XXIX. 



Spiddal Costello Screebe Furnace Kilkerran Bay Birterbury Bay 

 Roundstone Ballinahinch Clifden View from Urrisbeg. 



August 3. 

 Post tenebeas lux health after sickness, joy after sorrow, day 

 after night, are each in their way delightful, and doubly so from the 

 mere force of contrast. Yesterday I wrought on an uncongenial 

 theme, and at an occupation for the first time in my life distasteful ; 

 but the page has been written, the work is over, and now Galway 

 seems to wear a new aspect, as we drive through the streets to gain 

 the beautiful road which, coasting along the western shores of the 

 bay, skirting fiords, and winding among mountains, at length strikes 

 the Killeries, and brings the tourist to the banks of the Enive. 



Through the almost uninhabited solitudes of Jar-Connaught fiow 

 three small streams of exceeding goodness, the Spiddal, the Costello, 

 and the Screebe ; farther to the west we find the Ballinahinch 

 fishery, Kylemore, and others ; and at the edge of the county, where 

 it touches Mayo, we have Delphi and the Errive. 



Now the majority of these are club waters, and the remainder 

 annually let to one or more rods. It may not be out of place, 

 therefore, as we pass to visit these waters and say a few words on 

 the physical character, piscatorial merits, and market value of each. 

 A charming drive of ten miles along a coast road of marvellous 

 beauty brought us to the little village of Spiddal, through which the 

 stream humes, and at once plunges into the sea. Over the whole 

 country it seemed as if the sky had been raining gi-anite boulders 

 from the Deluge to the present day, so thickly were they spread over 

 hill and valley, whilst in the bed of the Spiddal they lay in masses 

 of every size and form. The comfortable lodge belonging to " the 

 fishery " stands on a lawn that slopes down to the river, on the 

 opposite bank of which rests the village, whilst between the lodge 



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