184 AN IRISH SALMON-RIVER 



enjoyment, has been allowed to run to seed in indiscrimi- 

 nate poaching. Of all the branches of sport, fox-hunting 

 alone has received full development in Ireland ; probably 

 no one has partaken of its highest ecstasy who has not 

 lived with hounds as they raced over the wide pastures of 

 Meath or raved upon a burning scent in Kilkenny. There 

 is no complaint upon that score, and, whatever be the 

 political future of Ireland, it is probably in her vales and 

 upon her uplands that the huntsman's horn will con- 

 tinue to resound long after it is silent elsewhere. It is 

 many years since, in one of the most disturbed districts 

 of Ireland, I enjoyed a run with what was called ' the 

 Fenian pack.' The county hounds had been boycotted 

 and put down ; but the ' bhoys ' had raised a pack of their 

 own, and cordially welcomed the appearance in the field 

 of those of the landlord class who were not too proud to 

 join in their sport. 



Game-preserving, except in the great demesnes and on 

 the moorlands of the north, may be reckoned impossible, 

 owing to the excessive subdivision of the land into small 

 holdings ; nor, having regard to the exceedingly artificial 

 phase into which shooting has passed in the sister isle 

 and the bloated scale of ' bag ' which seems necessary to 

 satisfy modern marksmen, need that be a subject of much 

 regret. Wild-fowl and snipe will continue to resort to the 

 bogs of Ireland, woodcock to her infrequent woodlands, 

 and much will remain for the recreation of him who does 

 not measure success by hecatombs. 



But of the angling wealth of Ireland her sons are sad 

 spendthrifts. The angler deplores the destruction of the 

 fairest trout-streams by flax waste, or by the cruel use of 

 the deadly wood-spurge, by which miles of water may be 



