208 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



leaving the streams and shallows without a trial. As 

 we proceeded up the hills the scenery became wilder 

 and more interesting ; here and there the moors were 

 sprinkled with green hillocks, and the range of moun- 

 tains behind was splendidly picturesque. The pools 

 alone had beauty in my companion's eyes, and some of 

 them were indeed magnificent. One was particularly 

 romantic — ^it was a deep natural basin, formed by a 

 sudden turning of the river, where the banks on either 

 side were nearly perpendicular, and rose to a con- 

 siderable height, and, to the water's edge, were thickly 

 covered with hollies and hardy shrubs. At the upper 

 end of the pool, a rock of immense magnitude reared 

 its naked front, and shut out every other object. Round 

 its base, the river forced its waters through a narrow 

 channel, and at the other extremity, falling over a ledge 

 of rocks, turned sharply round a hillock, and was lost 

 sight of. There were but two points from which the 

 angler could command the pool, for elsewhere the 

 banks and underwood prevented his approach : one was 

 a sandbank about the centre, to which, by a narrow 

 goat-path, the fisher could descend ; the other, a small 

 space immediately beneath the rock of green and velvet- 

 looking herbage. At this point the shepherds had 

 erected a hut for occasional shelter, and never was a 

 sweeter spot selected wherein to dream away a summer 

 night. No human dwelling was in sight — deep and 

 undisturbed solitude breathed around — the blue and 

 lucid pool before the cabin danced in the moonlight, 

 or glittered in the first rays of morning — while the 

 rushing waters of the river produced such melancholy 

 and tranquillizing sounds, as would lull to rest any 

 bosom untortured by mortal passions. 



