68 SALMON FISHIN'G IN CANADA. 



be kept wp to dry wet clothes, to keep off musquitoes, and 

 for culinary purposes ; that trees must be cut down to feed 

 these fires; that cooking for three or four hungry men.two or 

 three times a day, making beds, cleaning knives, plates, &c., 

 will occupy a good deal of time ; that if your party consists of 

 more than two, at least two cots or skiffs will be requisite ; 

 and that while you are fishing you will require at least one 

 man in each cot to paddle, pole, and gaff for you. 



The best cot or skiff for this sort of work is that which 

 is used on the rapids of the Shannon at Gastleconnel in 

 Ireland * ; it is light, draws very little water, steady, so that 

 the fisherman can stand up to fish from it, can be held in 



* SALVESTYR. 



Castlecoxjtel is a beautiful village on the soutliern shore of the Shannon, 

 about six miles east"ward of Limerick. Before the Continent was open to 

 •n'ealthj' wanderers, it was a fashionable watering plaee, and annually 

 attracted large numbers of visitors in search of health, or fun, or fishing; 

 but latterly it is almost deserted, except by the favoured few who are 

 admitted to the noble sport of salmon iishing, which is to be foimd in the 

 preserved waters of a few proprietors, in as great perfection as in any other 

 place in the kingdom of Ireland ; and by stiU fewer who occasionally resort 

 to it, attracted ly the lieauty of the scenery and the calm of its retii'ement, 

 which cause it to be pieculiarly suited for newly-married couples on their 

 wedding tour. Nevertheless, up to a late period, there were a number of 

 lazy, iiUe boatmen resident there, who gained a scanty and precarious 

 subsistence, by acting as guides to the different points of view, and by 

 inducing visitors to liu-e their frail cots for fishing piurposes ; though, to say 

 truth, they were generally far more skOful in inventing stories and amusing 

 their -\-ictims than in luring the silvery salmon from his rocky lair. 

 Amongst them was a brawny, able-bodied, rcd-hau-ed fellow, whose sobriquet 

 was " the Lamb," I suppose because he was the least innocent and the 

 most cunning of his confreres, — and who really possessed the talent of 

 teUing a yarn in an amusing manner. One of his narratives suggests itself 



