16 THE SALMON: 



with that tendency to a mixture of Latinisms with the 

 Border patois, which is to be ascribed, we suppose, to 

 the influence of the parochial schools, " There's aiblins a 

 traunsient brute." But in his eagerness and ignorance 

 he knows better than the keeper ; and there he is at it 

 still, in his seventh hour. The wind is in his eye, the 

 water is in his boots, but Hope, the charmer, lingers in 

 his heart. To many this is a marvel considerably 

 greater than that which Byron stated and explained : 



"Though sluggards deem it but an idle chase, 

 And marvel much that men should quit their easy-chair, 

 The toilsome way and long long league to trace, 

 Oh, there is sweetness in the mountain air, 

 And life that bloated ease can never hope to share." 



For surely it is still more marvellous that men should 

 quit not only their easy-chairs, but their native and 

 proper element, in pursuit of something which they very 

 seldom obtain, and which is to be got at home for a 

 twentieth part of the money, and no trouble at all. Yet 

 many there be that commit this folly and find a suffici- 

 ent reward. And pray, asks the objector, what is that f 

 Obviously something which unbelievers are incapable of 

 understanding and unworthy of enjoying. It has been 

 maintained, though not perhaps in cool print, by men of 

 sense and sobriety men not ignorant of any of the de- 

 lights to which flesh has served itself heir that the thrill 

 of joy, fear, and surprise (now-a-days surprise is the pre- 

 dominating emotion) induced by the first tug of a 

 salmon, is the most exquisite sensation of which this 

 mortal frame is susceptible whether he come as the 

 summer grilse, with a flash and a splash ; or like a new- 

 run but more sober-minded adult, with a dignified and 



