BALLINA. 247 



Ballina in those days was a capital fishing quarter, 

 and the river positively swarmed with salmon, and 

 it seemed at times as if the trout and salmon were 

 actually playing at backgammon, for the river seemed 

 alive with them, and on one occasion I saw eight 

 hundred grilse and salmon dragged out of one pool 

 called Pullamonach, and a friend of mine told me that 

 the year before he saw eighteen hundred dragged out 

 of the same pool. I can quite believe this, though 

 I did not see it myself, and I know for a certainty 

 that the gentleman I have mentioned fished a match 

 with a friend and killed twenty-three salmon and grilse 

 to his own rod in one day, and they were paraded 

 through the town in panniers on each side of a 

 donkey, who had been to fetch some peat from a 

 neighbouring bog. 



Paddy in those days was a more jolly, devil-may-care 

 kind of fellow than he is now ; such a thing as a pair 

 of trousers was seldom if ever seen ; coat, waistcoat, 

 and breeches, were all of home-spun grey material, 

 his breeches never buttoned at the knees, but invari- 

 ably gaping open, with the strings hanging down and 

 fluttering in the breeze, his hat was invariably of the 

 most worn-out kind, and had the look of having been 

 battered to pieces with a shillelagh, which was his 



