13G 



salmon, aud only got a small grilse, but I had a very plea- 

 sant outing along the banks of this beautiful river. I 

 never saw Ireland looking fresher and greener than it is 

 now. There is scarcely a leaf tliat yet bears the tinge of 

 approaching autumn, and the hedge-rows are ablaze witk 

 the dense masses of hawthorn berries which bear down the 

 branches, so enormous is the crop. 



As for blackberries, there never was such a crop, and my 

 boy Mike opines that he could load all the Channel steamers 

 with blackberries out of Antrim if the London people 

 would only buy them. He has a fine fertile imagination, 

 has Mike, and it seems a pity that so much latent talent 

 should remain undeveloped. The otlier day I was invited 

 by a very hospitable neighbour to try and capture one of 

 tlie many leviathan pike which, are said to inhabit an orna- 

 mental lake of thirty acres which forms part of the beauti- 

 ful surroundings of his mansion. Mike was in ecstacies; 

 it was the dream of his existence to fish this lake of whoso 

 fabulous pikes he had "hear tell" from Ids infancy. He 

 told me, with an expression of awe upon liis face, that he 

 liad " hear tell " of a greyhound attempting to swim across 

 this lake, when the animal was seized and swallowed by a 

 monster pike ! Then there was the case of the village shoe- 

 maker who set a poaching night line in the lake, and when 

 he went to take it away next morning pulled up a monster 

 of the deep that opened its jaws like an alligator, and 

 harked at him like a dog. This so frightened the poor snob 

 that he ran home and slammed the door, declaring that 

 the beast was chasing him. Such were the stories with 

 which Mike beguiled the time as I alternately spun around 

 the shallows and live-baited the deeps, getting nothing 

 bigger than ten pounds, until the shadows began to leng- 

 then. Then the fun commenced, for the fish began to feed. 

 Presently Mike got a run and struck his fish, which gave an 

 angry swirl and went down into deep water, pulling sav- 

 agely. "Holy Mother," says Mike, " 'tis a sixty pounder — 

 devil the ounce less and a savage baste entirely. Och ! 

 murder ! it's tearing the arms off me, he is, entirely ! " But 

 at this moment the rod straightened, and Mike's broken 



