186 1 FISHING GOSSIP. 
funereal dirge, which might at this period be still 
heard to dwell in wild and mournful cadence over the 
waters of the lake, as some lost member of the old 
race was borne to his last home in the grey abbey- 
grounds at the back of the hills. The strain itself 
indeed is not to be despised. The antiquarian 
musician, interested in such matters, will find it in 
Bunting’s last collection of Irish airs, and may judge 
for himself. The motif at least forms a noble chant ; 
and I can aver that though having wound up de pro- 
Jfundis many fine trout to the tune, I never once 
smelt the whisky by which it has been said to have 
been accompanied, nor witnessed the faction fights in 
which, if we are to credit some recent writers, it 
usually terminated over the grave. 
But the sun is within a few strides of the sum- 
mits of Ben and Carrick hills, which another heave 
of the old Titans might have elevated to the dignity 
of mountains, just as intelligibly as the “geological 
forces” employed for such heavy work nowadays. 
The “lucid interval” may be usefully: employed, 
before we descend to the lake, in describing the tackle 
employed in night-angling with the fly and the mode 
in which it was used. Any sound lake-rod sufficed 
for this purpose ; the amateur might please himself 
in minor details of “fashion,” but his choice in length 
was limited to fourteen feet, and under. The line 
and reel were identical with those employed in day- 
