FISH FOUND IN MAYO. 8l 



with both That this union cannot long subsist, I 

 should be inclined to infer from one remarkable circum- 

 stance, and it is a convincing proof of the rapid destruc- 

 tion which the introduction of pike into a trout lake 

 will occasion. Within a short distance of Castlebar 

 there is a small bog-lake, called Derreens ; and ten 

 years ago it was celebrated for its numerous and well- 

 sized trout. Accidentally pike effected a passage into 

 the Lough from the Minola river, and now the trout 

 are extinct, or, at least, none of them are caught or 

 seen. Previous to the intrusion of the pike, half-a-dozen 

 trout would be killed in an evening in Derreens, 

 whose collective weight often amounted to twenty 

 pounds. 



Indeed, few of the Mayo waters are secure from the 

 encroachments of the pike. The lakes of Castlebar, 

 I believe, still retain their ancient character ;* but 

 I understand that pike have been latterly taken in the 

 Turlough river, and of course they will soon appear in 

 a lake which directly communicates with this stream. 

 The voracity of the pike is strongly exemplified in the 

 following extract from a Provincial Newspaper. Of 

 the truth of the occurrence we presume there can be 

 no reasonable doubt, even in the minds of the most 

 sceptical ; but we believe there is no instance of animal 

 ferocity on record which could parallel it, except in 

 the celebrated case of the Kilkenny cats, whose respec- 

 tive demolition of each other is as wonderful as authentic. 



" A party angling at Sunbury, one of them sat across 

 the head of the boat, as a punishment inflicted on him for 



* " In the lake of Castlebar, near that town, is the charr and the 

 gillaroo trout, and it is remarked that there are no pike in this and 

 some of the adjacent lakes." — Daniel. 



Q 



