170 ANGLING. 



and said, c Oil ! the large fish never give play : a lively pail* now, 

 is worth twenty of 'em for that, sir. But, talking of large fish/ 

 continued he, looking at the fire and then turning to me, ' I was 

 fishing over there at Benson's Point one day. The boat was almost 

 wracked to pieces on that blackguard little quay that the Madam 

 lias below ; two or three of her ribs war broken, and so I was 

 obliged to fish from the land. Well, just as I was thinking where 

 I'd put her when she was mended, I feels a mighty heavy pul^ at 

 the line, that I knew must be from a great fellow. I tried him, 

 but not a stir could I get out of him for any money. Says I, 

 " This must be the making of me, when he won't rise his head at 

 all out of the sand ; 'tis the way with the great salmon that they 

 won't give any play at all." Well, we tried him again, and again, 

 and again ; but 'twas no use. I thought that may-be 'twas a rock, 

 or a stump of a tree, after all ; so I goes about every way to get 

 the hook free, but nothing would do. At last he vexed me all out 

 I didn't care a farthing what became of the rod or tackle ; I gave 

 a terrible whip, and tossed something over my head into the bushes 

 behind. " Yourself, and all that came before you, to the divil ! " 

 says Ingoing to see what it was. And, sure, I found that it was 

 an anvil, and that the hook had stuck in its eye. But that wasn't 

 the best of it : there was a fine stag (nine years ould by the horns) 

 sleeping in the bush, and when I thrun back the anvil, I struck 

 him with it in the middle of the forehead, and killed him as dead 

 as a gurnet.' 



1 ' Who the d 1, 5 interrupted Moriarty, c ever saw a rod or 



gut that would pitch an anvil out of the lake at Tornies ? Weren't 

 Mr. Lvnch and I raising an anvil the other day, for a wages ? 

 There isn't a rod in the world, unless a rod of iron or steel, that 

 would do it.' 



" Paddy never vindicates a story. I was unable, from laughter, 

 to utter a word ; but Moll, as usual, swore c it was thrue for the 

 lad. Wasn't the anvil a block by the fire, until she gave it to her 

 sister's son-in-law, when he set up the forge at Eahah Cross ? And, 

 for the stag, didn't an Iveraghan give a full-bound of butter for Ms 

 skin?' 



" I saw that Paddy was in great blood this day ; and willing to 

 see how far he would run if line enough were given him, I requested 

 Moriarty's silence by a look, and showed Paddy a volume contain- 

 ing some excellent drawings of fishes. 



" ' That one is a shark : he grows to be sixteen or twenty feet 

 long, and is exceedingly ferocious. A man in full armour was once 

 found in the belly of one. Did you, Paddy, ever see anything like 

 that?' 



f ' A man in armour ? That 's a soger, I suppose ? No, indeed, 

 sir ; I never saw anything quare in a fish. A man in a shuit (suit) 

 of iron ! The only thing I ever saw out of the^way was one day 1 

 caught a brown trout, between twenty and thirty pounds, and we 



* A spring salmon. 



