2 Rambles with a Fisking-Rod. 



miles it is a characteristic piece of Tyrolese 

 scenery, for there are the limestone mountains 

 with their grey summits and dark pine-covered 

 slopes, which on calm bright days are reflected 

 in the placid lake. Gmunden is a bright and 

 pretty town, with a good deal of local colour 

 from the whiteness of the houses and the red- 

 ness of their tiled roofs ; but half-way down the 

 lake is a more lovely spot, Traunkirchen, which 

 would be a charming place from which to fish 

 the Traun See. At the upper end of the lake 

 the Traun flows in, and then, by taking the 

 road for twelve miles, you follow the course of 

 the stream to Ischl, through a deep valley magni- 

 ficently clothed with wood, made more attractive 

 to the fisherman by the pretty stream which is 

 continually in sight, the sides of which are, ex- 

 cept here and there, fairly free from trees. 



At Ischl it is or was possible to obtain leave 

 to fish the Traun by paying two florins for a 

 card which allowed one person eight days' 

 angling ; and as the water is rented by the pro- 

 prietor of the Kaiserin Elizabeth Hotel, the 

 permission had to be obtained there. But the 

 amount of angling which I had was very small. 

 We reached Ischl late in the afternoon, and I 



