INTRODUCTION. XI 



pages for the sportsman of any country ; particularly 

 for him who still frequents the mountains and streams of 

 Connemara. The wild red deer of Ireland are all gone 

 now ; they were scarce in those days, but afforded 

 splendid sport. The account of the pike on Lough 

 Corrib is extremely interesting, as also are the notes 

 on the trout found in the high mountain loughs. " Two 

 loughs, situated in the same valley, and divided only 

 by a strip of moorland not above two yards across, 

 united by the same rivulet, and in depth and soil on 

 bottom apparently similar, were found to produce 

 fish as utterly different from each other as it is possible 

 for fish of the same species to be ; in the centre lake the 

 trout were ill-shapen and dark-coloured, with large 

 heads, lean bodies, and little fight in them. In the 

 adjacent lough they were golden and pellucid in colour 

 with bright vermillion spots, compact in shape, and 

 vigorous fighters ; and as much superior at table as they 

 were in the water." Very interesting, too, is the account 

 of a lake a hundred feet higher in the mountains pro- 

 ducing trout remarkable both for their size and for 

 their peculiarity in never rising at a fly or taking bait ; 

 and which were yet frequently observed by the herdsmen 

 rising over the water, or, as they said, *' tumbling about 

 like dogs." The local assumption was that there was 

 a sea-horse or other devil in the lake which prevented 

 the fish from rising to the fly. 



Charming, indeed, is the author's picture of the 

 sporting lodge in the wilds of Erris, the home of his 



