144 THE UPPER RAPIDS. 



"Parliament!" said the Squire: "you 

 may wait till every fish in the river is de- 

 stroyed, before those people trouble their 

 heads with the matter. If anything is done 

 at all the boys must do the job themselves." 



" Faith, then, I wish they would," said 

 the Scholar. " I would give a puncheon of 

 whisky towards it with my whole heart." 



"I would give a hundred pounds," said 

 the Squire, " rather than that fellow should 

 ruin the fishing in this way." 



"Do you know," said the Captain, "it is 

 hardly safe to talk so wildly before the men. 

 I remember once, when I was on detach- 

 ment at Killarney, I was walking back to 

 the barracks from an unsuccessful fishing 

 expedition, in company with a friend of 

 mine, when the boatmen attributed our want 

 of success to what very likely was the real 

 cause of it — the habit which the Irish fisheries 

 have universally fallen into, of evading the 

 law which gives free passage to the fish on 

 Sundays. I observed that the renters of the 

 fisheries were cutting their own throats, for 

 that the breed of fish must ultimately be 

 destroyed if something were not done ; and 

 my friend incautiously replied, that he would 



