220 LOUGH DERG. 



to be a far more comfortable boat than it 

 looked ; and the fishermen taking their 

 seats, one at each end, devoted themselves 

 to what the Captain called a the business of 

 life." 



Lough Derg has certainly been well 

 chosen as a spot of religious penitence and 

 seclusion, for the character of its scenery 

 harmonises well with such a feeling; it is 

 that of wild and gloomy loneliness. There 

 are no trees to be seen, and very little culti- 

 vation of any kind. It is surrounded by 

 heavy, round-headed mountains, or rather 

 gigantic hills, covered with heather, which, 

 with its red stalks and purple blossoms, casts 

 a dull, dusky, red reflexion on the water, 

 and gives to the lake its name. There are 

 a few islands besides the Purgatory, and 

 these are not without their beauty ; but 

 they are still of the same wild, savage cha- 

 racter as the coasts, — rocky, heath-covered, 

 and abounding in myrica and arbutus. 



It is in the neighbourhood of these islands 

 that the fish are caught, and round them the 

 boat made its slow circuit, as the fishermen, 

 keeping accurate time, cast, with lines not 

 above twice the length of their rods, the one 



