IRELAND. 171 



found a wran's (wren's) nest and seventeen eggs in his gills. That 

 was all I ever saw in a fish. I remember, indeed, that I caught 

 below there, opposite Eussa Quay, a big salmon with an officer's 

 cocked hat on his head ; and trouble enough he gave before he 

 was in the boat/ 



" ' Man alive ! ' said Moriarty, ' how could he see the fly with 

 the cocked hat?' 



" ' Sure, sir/ says Paddy, ' 'twasn't by the mouth at all I had 

 him ; if it was, we'd make aisy work of it : but he wanted to 

 drown the fly with his tail when I hooked him, and that was the 

 reason he gev all the play. It must be, sir, vou often caught a 

 trout that way, and you know how hard 'tis to land him.' 



" ' But, Paddy, what was the greatest bounce you ever saw a 

 salmon make ? ' 



" ' Why, thin, indeed, sir, I never saw anything out of the way 

 that way.' 



' ' Well I've seen the salmon-leap at Leixlip, which is at least 

 twenty feet high, and the salmon spring higher still; so that they 

 are sometimes shot flying? 



"Gondouth! Sure, I'll tell you what happened myself, the 

 day they gave the stag-hunt to the Lord Lieutenant he that had 

 the Black with him here.' 



" ' Oh, the black servant ! Lord Talbot, 1 suppose.' 

 ' ' The very same, sir. Well, that day may-be you were out 

 yourself, and know it as well as I do ? But I believe you weren't 

 in the country that year ; anyhow, the whole world seen it. The 

 hunt was in Turk Lake ; and as soon as it was over, and the^stag 

 was in the boat, all the boats were going down Brickeen Bridge, 

 to dine at Innisfallen. Oyeh ! what a show there was of 'em ; and 

 what a power of ladies and gintleman there was on the bridge ! 

 There war boats, too, coming up from Glenna and Innisfallen. 

 Well, sir, just as the Lord Lieutenant came to the bridge, Mr. 

 Herbert desired him hear the echo first, and the shot for the stag. 

 "Paddy," says he to me, "let's have a noble shot; I trust you 

 with it before any man." So I got the pattherraro you know the 

 place, sir, of course, where the best echo on the lake is, from the 

 rocks about twenty yards above the bridge?' (To this I could 

 safely assent.) ' Well ; I loads it well with powder, and a sod of 

 turf; makes a good divil; and was just going to put the spunk 

 to it, when I hears the cry, "The salmon! the salmon !" and, sure 

 enough, there he was, a huge fellow leaping over the 'bridge. I 

 suppose he was caught between the boats coming up and going 

 down, and the wather being shallow, he was obliged to jump over 

 the bridge.' 



" ' And what did you do, Paddy ?' 



:c ' I claps the pattherraro to my shouldher, and kills him as dead 

 as a herring.' 



V Oh, b- and o ! ' exclaimed my friend William, in the 



agony of his soul ; but Paddy went on. ' They weighed him, and 



