210 A YEAR OF LIBERTY ; OR, 



it was accomplislied no words of mine can describe it half so well as 

 Inglis has done years ago : 



A short half-hour sufficed to put me across, and stepping ashore in a little 

 cove opposite to a wide mountain hollow I followed the path which was pointed 

 out to me. About a mile from the shore I reached the entrance to the moun- 

 tain hollow, and another mile into the heart of it brought me to the neighbour- 

 hood of Delphi. The lodge itself is not any way remarkable, but its situation 

 is. It lies in a deep recess among the mountains, which rise lofty and abrupt 

 on all sides excepting one, whei-e there is a little lake, along whose margin 

 winds the road to the house. The immediate neighbourhood of the house is 

 well wooded, and abundance of sweet-smelling flowers made an odorous 

 atmosphere around. It is certainly a tranquil and singular spot." 



Inglis was no angler, or he could not have dismissed " the little 

 lake near the house" with so slight a notice, for, unless I make a 

 great mistake, it offers about the best white trout fishing in the 

 kingdom. The river below is rather more than two miles in length, 

 and in high water affords admirable sport. In the lodge an anchorite 

 ijiight find himself comfortable in the matter of solitude. Hemmed 

 in on one side by the deep and dark water of the fiord, and on the 

 other, shut out from the world by miles and miles of mountain and 

 swamp, the proprietors enjoy the most undisturbed piscatorial 

 domain to be found within the four seas of Britain. Knowing none 

 of the dwellers in this happy land, nor having any letters of intro- 

 duction, my power of obtaining trustworthy infoimation was so 

 small that I contented myself with looking at river and lakes, and 

 imagining the glorious spawning-beds lying far off in many a soli- 

 tary valley among the pathless mountains of Murrisk. Eight or ten 

 years ago this fishery was said to hold the finest white, trout in 

 Ireland, and I have heai^d of their being taken here up to the extra- 

 ordinary weight of 161b. Since that time no doubt the stock 

 has improved most of the waters in the island have advanced in 

 different degrees, certainly few, if jiny, have retrograded ; and 

 Delphi, which retained such a reputation in the darkest days of the 

 Irish rivers, ought now to be good indeed. 



The Errive, a stream without any lacustrine head, after a consi- 

 derable course falls into the head of the Killeries. The lodge 



