174 SCENERY. 



Ah, Father Andrew ! was this treatment for an old acquaint- 

 ance a man who would have trusted his life to you, and drink 

 with you in the dark ? Here, Andy Bawn, give me my book, 

 and fling this most villanous assemblage of faded wool and 

 ragged feathers into the next bog-hole. And now, my friend 

 and fellow-labourer, leave the mountains alone, and think more 

 of filling the fishing-baskets, or we are beaten men !" 



We followed the course of the river for a distance of ten 

 miles, stopping at the pools as we went along, but leaving the 

 streams and shallows without a trial. As we proceeded uj 

 the hills, the scenery became wilder and more interesting ; 

 here and there, the moors were sprinkled with green hillocks, 

 and the range of mountains behind was splendidly picturesque. 

 The pools alone had beauty in my companion's eyes, and some 

 of them were indeed magnificent. One was particularly ro- 

 mantic it was a deep natural basin, formed by a sudden 

 turning of the river, where the banks on either side were 

 nearly perpendicular, and rose to a considerable height, and, to 

 the water's edge, were thickly covered with hollies and hardy 

 shrubs. At the upper end of the pool, a rock of immense 

 magnitude reared its naked front, and shut out every other 

 object. Round its base, the river forced its waters through a 

 narrow channel, and at the other extremity, falling over a 

 ledge of rocks, turned sharply round a hillock, and was lost 

 sight. of. There were but two points from which the angler 

 could command the pool, for elsewhere the banks and under- 

 wood prevented his approach : one was a sand-bank about the 

 centre, to which, by a narrow goat-path, the fisher could de- 

 scend ; the other, a small space immediately beneath the rock, 

 of green and velvet-looking herbage. At this point the shep- 

 herds had erected a hut for occasional shelter, and never was 

 a sweeter spot selected, wherein to dream away a summer 

 night. No human dwelling was in sight deep and undis- 

 turbed solitude breathed around the blue and lucid pool 

 before the cabin danced in the moonlight, or glittered in the 

 first rays of morning while the rushing waters of the river 

 produced such melancholy and tranquillizing sounds, as would 

 lull to rest any bosom un tortured by mortal passions. 



" Julius has been here before us, and has left some mementos 

 of his visit," said the Colonel, pointing to foot-marks in the 

 sand, and blood and fish-scales upon the pebbles ; " I fear our 

 be is in jeopardy ; verily, our worthy relative will never shame 



