In Connemara. 37 



tavern, half farm, twenty-nine miles from Gal- 

 way, known as the Half - way House. Here 

 dwells one Lynch, who, when he is not farming 

 his thousand acres, mostly bog and moorland, 

 for which he pays a trifling rent per acre, looks 

 after the passing traveller, or acts as boatman 

 to the fisherman who may be living in his 

 house. It is a spot which is habitually resort- 

 ed to by a few enthusiastic fishermen, some 

 half-dozen or more during the season, who 

 have known the place for some length of time. 

 The mail-road between Galway and Clifden 

 passes three yards from the door, in front of 

 which is a piece of ground which, almost in 

 any part of England or Scotland, would be 

 turned into a neat patch of pretty garden. 

 Here it is a desolate bit of waste ground full 

 of weeds and rank grass. In describing the 

 fishing-places adjacent to this half-way house 

 which, by the way, stands in a wild moorland, 

 or rather bogland valley, on the highest piece 

 of ground between Clifden and Galway it 

 may be well to give a brief sketch of the fish- 

 ing of Connemara. 



The fishing - ground of Connemara proper 

 may be said to lie between Killery Har- 



