WESTERN LAKES. 63 



weight of thirty. The perch tribe appear the smallest in 

 the scale of relative proportion. These seldom exceed a herring 

 size; but they, too, have exceptions, and perch of three or 

 four pounds weight have been sometimes seen. Within fifty 

 years, this latter fish has increased prodigiously, and, in the 

 lakes and rivers where they abound, trout have been found to 

 diminish in an equal ratio. If any doubt remained touching 

 the fecundity of the perch, some of the Mayo waters would 



! prove it satisfactorily. Half a century since, I have been 

 assured that pike and perch were almost unknown in the rivers 

 of Belcarra and Minola, and the chain of lakes with which 

 they communicate, and that these waters were then second to 



i none for trout fishing. Within ten years, my cousin tells me 

 that he often angled in them, and that he frequently killed 

 from three to six dozen of beautiful middle-sized red trout. 

 Now, fly-fishing is seldom practised there. The trout is nearly 

 extinct, and quantities of pike and perch infest every pool and 

 stream. The simplest methods of taking fish will be here 

 found successful, and the lakes of Westmeath will soon be 



; rivalled by the loughs of Mayo.* 



Of the great Western lakes, Conn and Carra belong to 

 Mayo ; Corrib to Galway ; and Mask lies between both 

 counties. The most northerly, Lough Conn, is about nine 



i miles long, by two or three in breadth. Part of its shores are 

 beautifully wooded; and where the lower and upper lakes 

 unite, the channel is crossed by a bridge of one arch, called the 

 Pontoon ; and there the scenery is indeed magnificent. 



Lough Carra is smaller than Conn ; but, as a sheet of water, 

 nothing can be more beautiful ; and every thing that the painter 

 delights to fancy may here be realized. Islands and penin- 

 sulas, with rich overhanging woods, a boundless range of 

 mountain masses in the distance, and ruins in excellent keeping 

 all these form a splendid study for the artist's pencil. 



Mask communicates with Carra, and their united waters 

 discharge themselves into Lough Corrib by a very curious 



* Mr. Young mentions that, at Packenham, Lord Longford informed 

 him, respecting the quantities of fish in the lakes in his neighbourhood, 

 ; that the perch were so numerous, that a child with a packthread and a 

 crooked pin would catch enough in an hour for the daily use of a whole 

 family, and that his Lordship had seen five hundred children fishing at 

 the same time ; that, besides perch, the lake produced pike five feet long, 

 and trout of ten pounds each. 



