INTRODUCTION 43 



the same way, since it is on that coast an 

 offshore wind, and therefore ensures a calm 

 sea, it is preferred to any other for sea- 

 fishing on the west coast of Ireland, while 

 at Brixham, on the other hand, it helps 

 the bass -fisher in the opposite way, by 

 giving the desirable curl to the water. 

 The significance of the east wind, in fact, 

 under a variety of accompanying condi- 

 tions, is an excellent example of the 

 absolute futility of any attempt to lay 

 down hard and fast rules. 



If anything can make an easterly wind 

 still worse for fishing, where it is already 

 bad, it is a touch of north in it. Though 

 this, again, is not without many excep- 

 tions, a north-easterly wind probably has 

 more enemies among fishermen than that 

 blowing from any other quarter. Yet 

 even in this detested wind success is not 

 unknown, for Colonel M'Inroy once 

 caught four salmon in such a wind in the 

 course of an hour and a half, and, with 

 the wind in the same quarter, Major 

 Boulton remembers having, in the Outer 



