Io8 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



We tried some beautiful pools ; the fish were rising 

 fast ; they sprang over the surface of the water frequently, 

 and no worse omen can threaten the fishermen with 

 disappointment. If they did condescend to notice our 

 flies, they rose as if they wished merely to reconnoitre 

 them, or struck at them scornfully with their tails. 



Still hoping that a change in the temper of the fish 

 — for a lady is not more fanciful — might yet crown our 

 efforts with success, we proceeded down the river and 

 pushed on for Pullgarrow. To angle here with the water 

 clean and full, and the wind brisk from the westward, 

 would almost repay a pilgrimage. For its extent, there 

 is not a better salmon haunt in Christendom. The 

 fish were rising in dozens, and where the river rushes 

 into the neck of the pool, the constant breaking of the 

 surface by the rolling or springing of the salmon, was 

 incredible. The number of fish collected in this pool 

 must have been immense, for in every part of it they were 

 rising simultaneously But not one of them would touch 

 the fly I hooked a salmon accidentally in the side, 

 and after a short and violent struggle the hold broke 

 and I lost him. The mode of fishing attributed by 

 Sir Humphry Davy to the Galway fishermen must be 

 as unprofitable as unartistlike. If ever it could avail, 

 we should have succeeded to-day in Pullgarrow. 



Meanwhile the breeze gradually died away, or came 

 in gusts from the south ; the sky in the same quarter 

 grew thick and misty ; large drops fell, and in a short 

 time the rain came down in torrents. The reason 

 why the salmon had declined our flies was now dis- 

 closed ; although we had not foreseen the coming change, 

 the fish had evidently expected it. Wearied and 

 drenched, we returned to our shooting quarters. But 



