D THE ADVENTURES 



an incident occurred which can never be for- 

 gotten, which caused me at the time infinite 

 alarm and dismay, and for the first time in my 

 life taught me, by sad experience, the reality of 

 pain and danger. It was long afterwards ere I 

 knew exactly what had happened to me. The 

 shock itself was so sudden, its effects so stun- 

 ning and bewildering, that my senses were for 

 the time entirely taken away, and when I 

 returned to consciousness all that had occurred 

 appeared to me like a horrid dream, which I 

 could neither account for nor understand. 



It was on a fine evening towards the latter 

 end of May, that, having a well satisfied appe- 

 tite, I was enjoying a careless pursuit of occa- 

 sional flies which passed down the stream, when 

 I became suddenly aware of the approach of a 

 trout of unusually large size, who had emerged 

 from a neighbouring deep hole, from which, as 

 his residence, I had always kept at a respectful 

 distance. Kather fluttered by his appearance, 

 I darted away among the shallower water, whence, 

 turning again to regard him, I was reassured by 

 perceiving that I was not the object of his 

 pursuit, and became aware at the same moment 

 of two very beautiful insects, which seemed, the 

 one to fly, and the other to pursue across the 

 surface of the stream, and which had apparently 



