206 LOUGH DERG. 



" I do not see but that we are just as 

 well off," said the Captain, "as if we had 

 brought our flies with us." 



" We have lost some time, though," said 

 the Parson, " and that is what your fly- 

 makers by the river's bank never take into 

 account. Happy the man who gets a good 

 fishing morning ! He cannot afford to throw 

 it away in making flies, for the chances are 

 that he does not get a morning and an 

 afternoon too in the same day." 



It w r as with high spirits and renovated 

 hopes that the party set out on foot for the 

 Red Lake. The road, which, after a short 

 time, becomes little better than a footpath, 

 leads at first up the course of the stream, 

 but, soon diverging, begins to wind over a 

 wide and lonelv heath. There is no mistak- 

 ing it, for it is well trodden by the feet of 

 the pilgrims to St. Patrick's Purgatory, and 

 marked here and there by stations or places 

 for prayer. Indeed it was to the Purgatory 

 that the fishermen had trusted for procuring 

 a boat ; for boats are by no means so easily 

 to be obtained on this lake as on Lough 

 Melvin. There are no villages on the shores, 

 and consequently no trade ; its islands are 



