FLOOD, SALMON, AND STARLINGS 309 



" How do you know that," I meekly asked, " if you lost 

 him ? " " Lost him, you mane ? " More roars. " No, we got 

 him, the divil, for I jumped into the deep water, got him by the 

 gills, and out on to the bank." Shrieks. This, in the broadest 

 Irish with shouts of laughter interspersed, made a most amusing 

 tale. Greatly curious to know what this, the " biggest fish in 

 Oireland," had weighed, his answer 40 Ibs. astonished me 

 vastly, for nothing short of eighty had seemed to me a fit ending 

 to the story. 



He was a jovial jehu. A visit to a beershop before we started 

 may have had something to do with his hilarity ; everything was 

 a joke to him ; even when he told me of the death of a well-known 

 fisherman his laughter rang out loud and strong enough to startle 

 the mare and rouse her to fresh exertions. 



We passed an old castle here and there, generally but a ruin, 

 densely covered with ivy ; the large fields were neatly ploughed 

 or covered with pasture and feeding herds of cattle, or numerous 

 ewes, almost every one attended by two lambs. The cottages 

 generally seemed better than usual, the huge stone-faced banks 

 were well kept, and altogether the country had an appearance of 

 decided prosperity. Masses of gorse crowned with golden yellow 

 blossom, and primroses here and there, gave colour, and with the 

 many evergreens and ivy-covered trees relieved the still very 

 winterly aspect of the landscape. 



As Irish cars do, we trotted up the hills and walked down 

 them, passing many diminutive carts drawn by donkeys, in which 

 loomed large one or two shawl-enveloped women taking produce 

 to market; if not laden with human freight these primitive 

 conveyances carried a fat pig on its way to breakfast-tables 

 of Great Britain, via the slaughter-houses of Waterford. On 

 the grass by the roadside fed or lay fortunate donkeys with 

 a day off, or goats chained two and two together, to the great 

 disgust of both. Noisy crows were busy building their nests 

 in the many clumps of beech, Scotch fir, oak, and lime-trees, and 

 collecting old leaves in the meadows to make them comfortable. 

 On this last and favourite stretch of the river we only had the 

 right bank, certainly the best, with the exception of a very 

 limited piece, about the length of a small field. Close to the 

 bank here are some deep pools with very sluggish water, not 

 at all a favourable place for the fly. Told by the warden 



