Don't know what happened there! Anyway, re. the "good bottom" to the river, the source for that is Donegal (told to me in late 1970s, maybe early 1980s, but going back to the Thirties). Same source, more or less the same time:

At a time, there was this scheme to charge a licence fee for dogs. I see it's come back again, since the Irish Government is among the finest examples of the dictum that the one thing every government learns from its predecessor is the art of extracting money from the population. But, to our tale. Some kind of an official, a warden or inspector or member of the Council was, in pursuit of dogs, a man goin' round takin' names. Farmers were, as usual, particularly targeted. The Dog-Man came to the same JD, and, on asking him did he know of any dogs in the area, was immediately informed that he knew of at least half-a-dozen. Eagerly, the official asked, officially, where these doggies were.
JD didn't even need to speak, just indicated the river....