i62 WATERSIDE SKETCHES. 



ledge, is a volume entitled " A Year of Liberty," by W. 

 Peard, M.D., LL.B. The doctor in the most spirited style 

 records his experiences with the rod in Ireland from the 

 1st of February to the ist of November. The book, it is 

 true, refers to the Irish waters of ten years ago, but having 

 been within a couple of years on the author's track in many 

 places, I can recommend the work as reliably applicable in 

 its main features to the present time. Some years since I 

 read, re-read, and then read again an old work entitled, 

 if my memory faithfully serves me, "The Book of the 

 Erne." It is an enchanting angling book, but scarce. 

 For the tour through Connemara, from Sligo to Galway 

 (angling may be picked up along the whole way), there is 

 a very useful little skeleton-guide pamphlet^" Western 

 Highlands (Connemara)," by Mr. E. B. Ivatts. 



If the visitor to Ireland should return from the north- 

 eastern port of Belfast, and has a day or two to spend, and 

 any capacity left for admiring fine scenery, I would advise 

 him to select the route by Stranraer. He will then obtain 

 a capital view of the Irish coast, of the rocky islands and 

 headlands of Western Scotland, and he will also have the 

 shortest possible voyage between the two countries. At 

 Newton-Stewart, in the pleasant stewartry of Kirkcudbright, 

 he will have the River Cree, and several tributary burns, 

 some of which may be fished without much trouble. 

 There are brook trout, and in the autumn white trout. 

 Exquisite glens, mountains, and moorlands are near, and 

 plenty of legends for the antiquarian and romancist; for 

 the angler, who is prepared to wander onwards and up- 

 wards, there are lochs with an abundance of finny in- 

 habitants. The country between the Cree and Nith is 



