fish had been thrown over a few times, and risen once or twice and refused the fly, he rarely ever took any notice of it again in that place. It was generally nearest the tide that fish were taken, and the place next the sea was the most successful stand, and the most coveted; and when the water is low and clear in this river, the Galway fishermen resort to the practice of fishing with a naked hook, endeavouring to entangle it in the bodies of the fish; a most unartistlike practice. In spring fishing I have known a hungry half-starved salmon rise at the artificial fly a second time, after having been very slightly touched by it; but even this rarely happens, and when I have seen it, the water has been coloured.

PHYS.-Can you tell us why the fish rise better at the fly when the tide is rising, than when it is falling? There seems no reason why flies should be sought for by the fish at one of these seasons, rather than at the other.

HAL.-The turn of the salt water brings. up aquatic insects, and perhaps small fish;

and I suppose salmon know this, and search for food at a time when it is likely to be found. I cannot think that in these pools they can be on the look-out for flies, for there are none ever on the surface of the water; and I imagine they take the gaudy fly, with its blue kingfisher and golden pheasant's feathers, for a small fish.

ORN.-I have always supposed they took it for a libella, or dragon-fly; for I have often seen these brilliant flies haunting the

water.

HAL.-I never saw a dragon-fly drop on the water, or taken by a fish; and salmon sometimes rise even in the salt water, where dragon flies are never found. There is no difficulty in explaining why salmon in inland rivers should take flies, where natural flies are abundant; but fish, when they have lain long in pools in the river and fed on natural flies, will no longer take these bright flies, and then even a trout fly is often most successful. I have sometimes thought that the rising of salmon and sea trout at these bright flies, as soon as they come from the sea into

.

rivers, might depend upon a sort of imperfect memory of their early food and habits; for flies form a great part of the food of the salmon fry, which, for a month or two after they are hatched, feed like young troutsand in March and April the spring flies are their principal nourishment. In going back to fresh water, they may perhaps have their habits of feeding recalled to them, and naturally search for their food at the surface.

POIET. This appears to me very probable. But it is late, and we must return and compare the crimped trout and salmon; and I hope we shall have another good day to-morrow, for the clouds are red in the west.

PHYS.-I have no doubt of it, for the red has a tint of purple.

HAL.-Do you know why this tint portends fine weather?

PHYS.-The air when dry, I believe, refracts more red, or heat-making, rays; and as dry air is not perfectly transparent, they are again reflected in the horizon. I have

generally observed a coppery or yellow sunset to foretel rain; but, as an indication of wet weather approaching, nothing is more certain than a halo round the moon, which is produced by the precipitated water; and the larger the circle, the nearer the clouds, and consequently the more ready to fall.

HAL.-I have often observed that the old proverb is correct—

A rainbow in the morning is the shepherd's warning: A rainbow at night is the shepherd's delight.

Can you explain this omen?

PHYS. A rainbow can only occur when the clouds containing, or depositing, the rain are opposite to the sun,-and in the evening the rainbow is in the east, and in the morning in the west; and as our heavy rains, in this climate, are usually brought by the westerly wind, a rainbow in the west indicates that the bad weather is on the road, by the wind, to us; whereas the rainbow in the east proves, that the rain in these clouds is passing from us.

POIET.-I have often observed, that when the swallows fly high, fine weather is to be

INDICATIONS OF RAINY WEATHER. 155

expected or continued; but when they fly low, and close to the ground, rain is almost surely approaching. Can you account for this?

HAL.-Swallows follow the flies and gnats, and flies and gnats usually delight in warm strata of air; and as warm air is lighter, and usually moister, than cold air, when the warm strata of air are high, there is less chance of moisture being thrown down from them by the mixture with cold air; but when the warm and moist air is close to the surface, it is almost certain that, as the cold air flows down into it, a deposition of water will take place.

POIET.-I have often seen sea gulls assemble on the land, and have almost always observed that very stormy and rainy weather was approaching. I conclude that these animals, sensible of a current of air approaching from the ocean, retire to the land to shelter themselves from the storm.

ORN.-No such thing. The storm is their element; and the little petrel enjoys the heaviest gale, because, living on the