SALMON ANGLING IN lEELAND. 215 



throbbing and panting with stars," I felt that even my friend Fitz 

 had proved faithless. 



As a " head centre " Newport offers capital autumn quarters. 

 Close to the town flows a little river, with many good deep pools 

 and a fair stock of fish. A short distance to the westward the road 

 crosses a long bridge, through whose arches flow the surplus waters 

 of Burrishoole Lake, where angling can always be enjoyed of 

 course irrespective of rain and a few miles farther brings the 

 tourist to Tyrena, which needs description. Some seasons since 

 Colonel Gore, to whom the district at that time belonged, . most 

 kindly gave me permission to fish the water. I reached it late in 

 the season, during a week of incessant rain, and enjoyed such sport 

 as ever after placed Tyrena in my most affectionate remembrances. 

 This brook, from its source half way up the mountain side to its 

 debouchment into Clew Bay, cannot exceed, if it reaches, a length of 

 three miles. It flows through probably the wettest moss in Ireland, 

 yet with twelve hours' fine weather its bed becomes dry, a few black 

 boggy holes excepted. But in Mayo, happily, the sky is much given 

 to weeping, when the morasses, always saturated, instantly begin to 

 overflow, pouring into the watercourses a black deluge, and in an 

 hour or two afterwards the ton-ent is full of splendid white trout. 

 Not only is this mountain rill an angling wonder, but it is one of 

 the most instructive in the country. Fancy a stream of only three 

 miles ! Why, there are thousands of despised brooks in the three 

 kingdoms of thrice this length which are absolutely valueless, all of 

 which are, however, capable of being made equal to Tyrena. If a 

 man has but water he can have fish, as surely as a cottager possessed 

 of a few square yards of ground can gi'ow cabbages. But this is 

 not quite the place to discuss or enforce fish culture, more especially 

 as it has just been done far better than I can hope to do it ; so I 

 will recapitulate the advantages of Newport as an autumn quarter 

 for anyone blessed, as I was, in the possession of angling powers, 

 and then go to rest. If the weather be fine the sportsman has 

 Burrishoole. During the fall of a fresh, and some days after- 

 wards, the Beltra is sure to yield sport, and in wet weather 



