I beg you will not accept the last rhyme in an extreme construction, as I assure you that we were all, the ladies at least, most decorously, or, according to the adage,

"Merry and wise."

The sun was fast sinking behind the moat of Granard, and gilding with its oblique rays the hills of Knock-ion, Knock-ross, Knock-body, and the Crooked-Wood, far east away, when we set about returning home. The ladies, ordering their vehicle round to the nearest point to our landing place, preferred coming into the boat; so we all embarked with the usual accompaniment of real or affected alarm, and interesting exclamations, perhaps I might say screams, as the boat inclined on her beams, until the party were all seated and balanced. Then,

"Each boatman bending to his oar,

With measur'd sweep the burden bore."

The lake was like a vast sheet of glass, in which the sun seemed to dress his retiring beams. From the clustered thorns, scattered on the verdant slopes of the beautiful hill of Kiltoom, as we coasted its shore, the blackbird and thrush greeted us with their evening song-the murmurs and wild call of the water fow! were heard among the tall reeds occasionally skirting the shore, and the lowing of the full-uddered kine for the relieving office of the milk-maid; all, mingled on our ear in nature's own full and perfect harmony, All the pretty things said on board-our marine gallantries our fears-our sentiment, and our nonsense, I leave to your imagination or your experience, and, for the present, shall content myself with saying, that

we landed safely, and all reached Castlepollard, without the slightest circumstance to cast a shade over the memory of one of the pleasantest days I ever passed on the water. If you are not weary of the subject, and that I can accomplish the navigation of the river Inney, my next shall treat of Lough-Sheelan.

F2

CHAP. V.

I HAD Some notion of proceeding to Lough-Sheelan by boat up the Inney, but the account I received of the extreme dreariness of that part of the river, which flows with sluggish motion the whole way, through an unrelieved tract of bog and swamp, discouraged me, and I went by land, the distance being about eight miles, while the windings of the desolate stream would have made the distance sixteen miles or more. To a person who could be amused by an incessant take of small pike, with the bait, the river would repay the labours of the oar.

One of the rowmen, who constantly attended us, undertook to row our boat up the Inney, overnight, and meet us in the morning at a given point, Ross. I cannot resist the inclination I feel to give you some account of this Caliban of the lakes :-Larry Moore is a sturdy, chubby, strong made fellow, of middle size, and about five or six and twenty years of age. His thick and uncombed locks, beard seldom shorn close, open shirt collar, ragged triheens, (an Irish term for woollen hose reaching neither to the ancle nor the knees) and formidable teeth, which no one better knows to put to their natural use, always exposed by lips somewhat of the African form, would

give you the most perfect idea of a wild Irishman, just caught; but, nevertheless, whoever would take Larry for a simpleton, would be widely mistaken. Fond of fish, or, at least, the pursuit of it, as an otter, he seems to partake of the instinct and qualities of that animal, and appears to wage a bellum internecionem against the finny tribe. When the season serves, he is every day on the water; and, being troubled by none of the scruples that govern the fair sportsman, "alike to him all seasons and their change;" the dark November nights may enshroud his form and his feats, but not secure from spear and net the ill-fated trout, mother fish, or spawner, which, in that season, forsaking the lake, proceed up the smaller streams that flow into it. In fact, a person disposed to use discourteous terms, would probably call our friend Larry nothing short of a poacher; and, indeed, there goes a story in the village, that, having learned that the suspicions entertained of his nocturnal sports were about to assume an active expression, he hid his net in a new-made grave, but not with the intention that it should form its last retreat. With all this, I would advise, that the very first inquiry of a visiting angler, in the town of Castlepollard, should be for Larry, and his first care to secure his services, which, as oarsman, messenger, carrier, and universal drudge, are invaluable. His zeal, combined with his strength and activity, overcomes all difficulties. He will carry your provisions to the lake, and your fish from it. He will "fardels bear," but never groan, though he may sweat. He will provide you with bait of all sorts, if you are disposed to that agency of sport. If your boat lie shoaled from

row you the whole day without intermission, if you but prevent his muscles getting rigid by seasonable supplies from the aqua vitæ bottle. Among his accommodating qualities, that of an ample and untired appetite, both for solids and fluids, does not rank as least; no one can be more expert at lightening Æsop's load, and such is his gastric sense of politeness, that he will never suffer his entertainer to doubt of his being pleased with his fare, either by rejecting any viands that are given to him, or leaving on his plate even a wreck behind."

This fellow, so admirably fitted for the purpose, commenced his voyage up the river about six o'clock, and was in waiting for us when we arrived at the quay of Ross, after having caught two fine tiout, and numberless small pike and perch. There is, near to Lough-Sheelan, a small lake, formed by an expansion of the Inney, and, when Larry got into it, the night was so dark that he could not find his way into Lough-Sheelan; he, therefore, pushed his boat into a large cluster of strong reeds, which kept it stationary, as if at anchor, and, coiling himself on the floor, disposed himself for sleep. Such, however, he said, was the incessant rise of the fish around him, the noise of which so intensely occupied his otter-like instinct, together with the screaming of the water fowl, that it was long before he could close his eyes or his ears; when he did, he slept soundly, until a wasp, directed by the morning sun, settled on his nose, which the insect mistook either for the yellow flagger flower, or an over-ripe pear, and, in the act of rifling its sweets, inflicted such a wound as suddenly aroused the snoring