294 THE FALLS OF BALLYSHANNON. 



and if Killmore will not do, it is of no great 

 use to try butterfly or mixed wing/ So I 

 looped on Jack again ; and, if you will be- 

 lieve me, at the very first throw I was in 

 him. You need not laugh, upon my soul it's 

 true, and a jolly fish he was." 



"Did you land him?" said the Captain. 



" Well, I did ; but I thought I never 

 should, more particularly as Pat had left 

 the gaff at the Grass Guard, and had to fetch 

 it. You know what a queer throw Reade's 

 is. You go out into the river for thirty 

 yards or so on a great pavement of broad 

 slabs, like that at Rose Isle, only two feet 

 under water, and with great deep crevices of 

 half-a-yard wide between them, the water so 

 thick that you could not tell deep from 

 shallow, and rushing along in flood so that I 

 could hardly keep my footing as I stood, 

 even without going stumbling after the fish. 

 The pool, as you know, is not a very big one 

 — not above a hundred yards each way — and 

 the fish did not like to face the furious broken 

 water of the rapids above or below it. By 

 George, sir! his motions were more like 

 those of a swallow than they were to any- 

 thing like what I ever saw a fish do, — back- 



