CLEAR WATERS 



the passengers to call a halt. The Teifi runs along 

 beside it, and there is a noted salmon pool just beneath 

 one of the small way-stations, the custodian of which 

 in my time was an enthusiastic angler, and had the free 

 run of it from the squire. And, I might add, that the 

 Teifi owners all the way down were the most hospitable 

 in this respect of any I have ever encountered. The 

 station-master was the sole official here, and if he was 

 in a salmon when the train arrived, which with the 

 water in good order sometimes happened, it was 

 awkward, or would have been if the passengers who 

 had grown up as it were with the railroad, and indeed, 

 as already hinted, encouraged its informalities, had 

 regarded the matter as unusual, or done anything but 

 turn out in a body to see the fish gaffed. 



Just inside the edge of the high moors above Tre- 

 garon is a large tarn covering several acres, named Llyn 

 Berwyn. It contains a fair stock of good trout, but 

 of such reticent habit that they are expected to take 

 the fly about one day only in the month. Then I 

 believe the labour of getting there earns its due reward 

 and more. One day late in July, a young Cardigan- 

 shire farmer of my acquaintance offered to drive me up 

 there, as he had a brace of young pointers he wanted 

 to handle a bit before the approaching grouse-shooting 

 opened. The chances were consequently thirty to 

 one against me, counting Sundays, but I took the odds 

 unhesitatingly. So we toiled up the five miles of 

 rough road from Tregaron, almost the only track that 

 actually crosses these * mountains of Elenydd ' into 

 Brecon and Radnor. Our vehicle was a dog-cart and 

 our steed, happily for us, a faithful family friend 

 210 



