226 HINTS ON ANGLING. 



THE LOIRE. 



Throned on the summit of a towering crag 



Its dark shade mantling on the yellow Loire, 



Whose mighty waters in majestic flow, 



Swell'd by a thousand tributary streams, 



Glide 'neath umbrageous hills, o'er golden sands, 



To fertilise the beautiful Touraine 



A ruin'd chateau rears its time-worn head, 



And crown'd with ivy, and the broad green leaves 



Of the thick clustering vines, sits like the monarch 



Of that lovely land! The Troubadours Talc. 



Biber Hotre; anD t{)e ^ritwtarg Streams on 

 its 



THE noble Loire is the largest river in France; and 

 taking into calculation all its turnings and windings, must 

 run a course of not less than eight hundred miles. It 

 sweeps through the very heart of the kingdom, inter- 

 secting in its fertilising route not less than eleven distinct 

 departments. 



A vast proportion of this magnificent stream is appro- 

 priated to the purposes of navigation, and therefore does 

 not come under the description, nor serve the ends, of a 

 fishing river. Its higher waters and numerous tributaries 

 are, however, very valuable and interesting in a sporting 

 point of view; and therefore to these we shall endeavour 

 to direct the attention of the angler with as much clear- 

 ness and brevity as possible. 



The Loire takes its rise in the department of the Haute 

 Loire, about twenty miles above the town of Le Puy, in 

 Old Languedoc, in an elevated and beautiful part of the 

 country. Before it arrives at this place, it becomes fishable 



