with the stream before him, from the noisy babbling of infancy to the hope of a quiet passage through the last vale that leads us to the ocean of Eternity. Holy Island was much frequented at Midsummer by persons variously afflicted, who thought by "giving their rounds" here, they would obtain relief. The boatmen will amuse you with wondrous cures, vouchers for which they will give with "day and date:" but perhaps, it is necessary I should explain the term "giving the rounds." The person performing the ceremony must go on their bare knees from a particular point, generally one of the churches, to a "blessed well," about 100 yards distant; there they must deposit a pebble, tie a bit of rag or ribbon on a bush, and return on their knees back again; this is often repeated over and over, every time saying a certain number of prayers to their patron saint. The devotion ended, they usually adjourned to a tent (numbers being erected on the island at the time), and the evening's amusement generally concluded with whiskey and fighting; but Father Matthew having completely banished the first, the latter is a matter now of rare occurrence. At present, this custom of visiting Holy Island is altogether abandoned, the Roman Catholic clergy having used their influence to stop it, in consequence of lives having been lost in returning from the island through the drunkenness of the boatmen and passengers; and now, with the occasional exception of a solitary person-generally some old man, with venerable white hairs streaming in the breeze, on bended knees, offering up a prayer" for the soul of the faithful departed," at the new-made grave, perhaps of some favourite child— the visitor would never suppose that such scenes as formerly occurred here were ever enacted. The lake is generally fished from two boats with a cross-line, containing twenty flies-a white feather being tied between the tenth and eleventh fly, to mark to the party at whose side of the feather the fish is hooked, that they are to play him to the landing-net. I have often fished in this manner here, but, from the weight of the cross-line and the number of flies, I found it very tedious and unpleasant-in fact there is no sport in playing your game, as the rods you require to bear the weight of the line must be very stiff and strong, and not more than ten feet in length; still, if you wish to count numbers, use the cross line; at the same time another of the party in the stem of the cot next the land can single-fish, and as about the 20th of May when the fish rise freely to the green and grey drake which rise from the bottom of the lake, and are thence hunted by the trout, excellent sport may be had. It is a curious fact, which, until I saw it, I did not believe, that those two flies I have mentioned, and several others, are bred in the water, and rise to the surface in their shell or covering of thin crispy matter, like tracing paper; they then burst this temporary prison, and at once fly off; they are rather larger than the stone fly, and the green-drake seems to be the greatest favourite for the trout, as you will hook seven for every three you hook with the others. With the cross line and single rod, I have in part of two days killed 30 trout, averaging 4lbs. each, and I know that Mr. Carrig, of Killaloe, has in less time doubled that number. The gillaroe-trout, famous for their gizzard, are also caught herethey take the fly as freely as the brown trout, but they are not so numerous, nor do I consider them so good for the table, but from their scarcity they are more prized. And now as to the description of flies necessary; they must be all tied on CC hooks: and, before I go further, I advise the fisherman not to fish with any but the Limerick hooks, and they must be got from a good maker; old Daniel Shaughnessy was, perhaps, one of the best makers in the kingdom, but he "drank himself out of this world to go to a world of spirits," and there is now no person of that name who makes hooks in Limerick; true it is that two very respectable shopkeepers there lay claim to be the venders of the real Shaughnessy hooks-but this is all "ohûig," or, anglice-" Walker." The prices I have paid for hooks were as follows:-midge hooks, single F, double F, and threble F, one shilling per dozen; single C, double C, and threble C, one shilling and sixpence per dozen; single B, double B, and threble B, two shillings per dozen; all over that size, three shillings per dozen. Threble B hooks are large enough for fly-fishing for any river in Ireland, except the Shannon. I have been always supplied by Peter Burnes, whose address is Mary-street, Limerick. He served his time to old Daniel; and out of hundreds of hooks which I have used, I do not think I ever broke four. Where is the use of your fishing, if you happen to have the only taking fly for the day tied on a bad hook? The "little ones" are greedy for it; presently an "old one" leans on you, and you find, after a couple of plunges, that he's "gone" You look at your fly to see if that is gone too. "Oh no! I'm all right-I see it there it is." In you cast again-you rise him. "By George, what a fine fish; but I felt him, he must have tasted the steel, and won't come again. Now there's another, what sport I'll have this day; I touched him too-another-why, zounds! what's the matter with my hook? Oh dear! I declare 'tis broken right in the bow, and I have not another fly of the same description." Has this ever occurred to you, my patient reader? If so, I hope you did not blame the maker, but the "penny wise and pound foolish" notion of getting good cheap hooks. There is not a single hook made in Limerick, no matter how small, but which is regularly forged and filed out of a small bar of steel, and proved as to its temper after being finished. But to the flies. The GREEN DRAKE is tied thus: grey fur body, with moss-green fur mixed under the wing; rib with gold twist; run a lively green hackle along the twist, and the wing must be mallard feather dyed yellow. GREY DRAKE: grey fur body with grey hackle, that from the neck of a dark cuckoo-cock the best; rib with gold twist, rather close, and the wing must be composed exclusively of mallard feather-that with the brown hue is best. The CLARET DRAKE: grey fur body, with claret fur mixed under the wing; rib with gold twist, alongside of which run a bright claret hackle, plain mallard wing. BLACK DRAKE: dark grey fur body, with a black hackle, gold twist, rather close; and mallard wing. Those are all the drakes tied; but the two first are those will be found most killing. I now proceed to describe the other lake flies. GROUSE LAHABOR: red or orange silk body, ribbed with gold tinsel, alongside of which run your grouse hackle, the hip feathers best; trim the front of the hackle close, and leave the back to form part of the wing, which must be backed with the neck feather of the golden pheasant (called the butterfly), green parrot, and guinea-fowl. This is a very killing fly; and if you meet a peal or salmon in your rambles, he will not pass it. The PALMER: orange silk body, with red or brown olive hackle, ribbed with gold twist, plain mallard wing. GOLDEN OLIVE: hare's ear and yellow monkey fur, with bright gold olive hackle; rib with gold twist, plain bittern wing. The PARTRIDGE LAHABOR is tied exactly as the grouse; but a small jay hackle under the wing is a great improvement. The FIERY BROWN: light brown fur body, with dyed fiery brown hackle; rib with narrow gold tinsel, mallard wing. DUN OLIVE and DARK OLIVE are tied with green olive fur body, the hackle on the one being black, and on the other dun coloured; both ribbed with gold twist, plain mallard wing. Tie them all on strong single salmon gut. These are the only flies necessary for this lake. If you choose to put up a strange fly or two, it often tells; but, except with a couple of small salmon flies, I would not advise the stranger to try experiments. If you find yourself near this spot, unprovided with tackle, the Elises, of Killaloe, are always supplied with boats and all the et ceteras necessary, and are very civil. If you go provided, as above, and wish to enjoy yourself at a trifling expense, and, at the same time, in comfort, the steamer which conveys you either to or from Killaloe will leave you at Williamstown, where inquire for Dominick White and his brother, and they will supply you with two boats, at the small expense of four shillings a day and their diet, for themselves and their craft; and I promise the sportsman that, even with this pair, he will find amusement. They are the most original couple I ever met. Dominick is all vivacity and good humour, with a buoyancy of spirit in such genuine Irish perfection rarely to be met with, the "laugh full of life," always taking things "as luck will have it" without murmuring. The brother is a widower-doubting and questioning whether you would advise him to take a young wife "to mend the little things about the house," or leave it alonetesty and grumbling-always hampering himself and every one about him with difficulties, and full to overflowing with imaginary grievances and misfortunes; so that, if you are one of those who travel to acquire a knowledge of the world as well as amusement, here are two volumes of human life, by the same author, presented to your notice. Peruse them, as I have done, and you will be rewarded by a much larger tund of information as to the manners and customs of this class of my countrymen than can, in common fairness, be found in humble life. I do not advise my readers to stop at Williams-town, as I conceive the comforts of the hotel (the only house in the town), are cold, and the charges warm; but give directions to your boatmen to take you to Mrs. Clarke's, near Mountshannon Daley, and you will find comfort, attention, cleanliness, and civility. It is a private house, but frequented by the gentlemen from Limerick who fish on the lake; and, if you take your own provisions they will be dressed for you; if not, by sending a line by post to the above address, they will be prepared for your arrival. I have heard and read advices given to the angler, that in all cases where he hooks a fish he should strike at him. Now, with all deference to the superior judgment of others, I will give my advice, and it is, never strike at a fish; as when he takes the hook, the very act of his going back to his lodge is quite sufficient to fasten it in him; whereas, if you, on seeing him rise, strike at him, you are very apt, if he is a large fish, to break your tackle in him. When you see the break in the water at your fly, it is caused by the action of the fish in going down after taking the fly, not in rising to take it; as the fly is taken before you see the break. Hence is it that when a fish takes a fly under water, where you do not see him rise, he is, in nineteen cases out of twenty, more firmly hooked than when he makes a splash, and you rise your hand too soon. I never strike; but when I feel the fish, then I raise my hand, and that gently. I have often, as my fly has floated in across a stream, seen a fish rise and miss the fly, and again follow it and take it; and I have remarked that when a fish rises and misses the fly, if you take it up too quickly off the water, and throw it out again, he will not rise. The reason is obvious: the fish after missing his prey, and not seeing it on the water will naturally go down the stream in search of it, and a couple of minutes will elapse before he will come back to his lodge, and this is the reason that the old fishermen will, when they rise a fish in a stream, always go back a yard or too, and wait, as they say, " to let him rest." Below the weir at Killaloe, there is capital sport in the evenings, after sun-set, fly-fishing for trout. The river here forms a succession of streams, and they are well stocked with fish from 1 to 8 lbs. weight and I need not tell the practical angler that the later he remains out the better, provided the moon is not up, as fish are more actively engaged in search after food by night than during the day. Killaloe is famous for its great eel fishery, not with rods, but eel weirs. It commences in the month of November, and continues until January. Tons weight of the silver or fresh water eel are often killed here in a night, a single weir paying a rent for the few months fishing of over £100. The history of the eel is most curious. The whole of the common eel come into rivers in myriads from the sea, in the spring of the year, not thicker than a knitting needle, and patiently wend their way up all the lateral streams, even to the very source of the smallest brooks, and thus are the rivers stocked. Their growth is very rapid. From November to January they return (weighing from to 9 lbs.) to the sea, and are no more heard of; and it is on their return that they are caught in the nets of the eel weirs in such countless thousands. These facts, strange as they may appear, nevertheless undoubted, and it seems to me to admit but of one solution, that the small eels which come in such vast quantities from the sea are the spawn of the conger. This I know is denied by some; but of their coming into, and departure from, the various rivers at the times I have stated, none deny; and if they are not the spawn of the conger, then are we left in the dark as to their generation, and how it is must remain a mystery. are The lamper or "lamprey eel," one of the greatest delicacies of the table, formerly so much esteemed by the Romans that they fed them with their slaves, is also taken in the Shannon in the month of June. They are a stupid fish, as, with a gaff, you can hook them off the bottom when they are preparing the bed for the reception of their spawn-I have taken five or six one after the other: they average about 4 lbs. each, but I have seen one 8 lbs. weight. They are a very disgusting looking fish, but when properly cooked nothing can be more delicate; they taste more like fed veal than fish, and from their great richness are very likely to give the gourmand a surfeit. And now, having done with the Shannon, I shall tie up my tackle and depart in peace; and, in giving advice for fishing in the Blackwater, which flows through Mallow and Fermoy, in the county of Cork, I shall state the best streams on, and the flies adapted to, that river. Since the new fishery act came into operation, I understand it is well stocked with salmon, and I know of no river in which they take so freely. One advantage it possesses over the Shannon is, that you can fish almost all the streams from the land, and, I know not what is the custom now, when I fished there, some half dozen years back, the river was not preserved, with one or two exceptions, by any of the landowners for miles; so that you were not tied down to any particular part, but could ramble from stream to stream, and enjoy the loveliness of nature around you. The mathematician may pursue his deep and abtruse calculations, and the philosophical essayist may be exact in all his statements and perspicuous in his illustrations; the miser may gloat over his darling treasure, and hunt with feverish anxiety to increase its amount; and the spendthrift may pursue the butterfly phantom of pleasure, darting from one object to another without steadiness, in lavish and whimsical disorder; each may fancy that he alone has found out the philosopher's stone which gives pleasure to life—but in the quiet enjoyment of this silent sport, man is brought at once more intimately to the companionship of his own thoughts, and looking around him on nature, and above him to nature's God, is taught to feel that happiness is only to be derived from the throne of immortal excellence, and not from the ignis fatuus of human glory. "Oh, 'tis sweet To list the music of thy torrent streams; WHO WINS THE DERBY? BY PAUL PRY. We have now got fairly into the racing season, and every one is on the alert to obtain such information as may be most conducive to their pleasures and their profits. The great race for the Derby absorbs, as it has been wont to do, the most profound interest; many anxiously |