118 A DAY UP THE RIVER. 



by day, this arrangement suits equally the 

 convenience of both parties. The salt eel 

 is the staple of Belleek, and the favourite 

 Lenten food of the Roman Catholics ; and 

 for this fish the Erne is more famous than it 

 is even for its salmon. At the migrating 

 season every rock is black with them ; and 

 the annual ground-rent of the weirs alone is 

 said to exceed 300/. 



It was at the neck of this eel- weir that the 

 trout had taken their station, and a pleasant 

 station it was for them when they were once 

 there ; for at the neck there was quite depth 

 enough to make them easy in their minds, 

 while the narrowness of the channel rendered 

 it absolutely impossible that any of the 

 numerous caddises, chafers, palmers, or half- 

 drowned flies, sucked down from the still 

 water above, could escape their notice ; and 

 every now and then a small red worm, washed 

 from the sandy banks, would come trundling 

 down, affording them a luxury they could 

 not expect to meet with in the stony channels 

 of the lower river. 



Below, the mouth of the eel-weir opened 

 upon a flat slab of rock, similar to those 

 which paved Rose Isle and the throw before 



