42 THE ADVENTURES 



the statute length of eighteen inches ! We will 

 strive to yield to the hypothesis, that any such 

 very possible mischance may have befallen him, 

 as to fall into such hands, and yet be again set 

 free, and allowed under the protection of the law, 

 to increase in substance, until we now behold 

 him, in the fifth year of his existence, a noble 

 salmon, of some twelve or fourteen pounds 

 weight ; returning to his native river, intent upon 

 visiting the romantic source of the Dee. 



But, in thus resuming the story of his life, 

 we find it difficult to let him speak for himself. 

 Not that he cannot tell us a great deal ; far from 

 it only that he cannot tell us half enough ! 

 What does he wot of the daily dangers of his 

 Deelj life ? If he but knew one half of the 

 nets and pitfalls the thousand and one snares 

 set for his destruction the keen, avaricious gaze 

 with which he will be waited for at every bend of 

 the river, watched over every weir, hunted into 

 every pool, or speared at in every shallow would 

 he, despite his strong instinct and irresistible 

 impulse to return, would he ever again venture 

 to the scenes of his early youth? 



Alas, poor Salmo, such is thy fate ! The instinct 

 and impulse are stronger even than the love 

 of life. Eeturn thou must, again and again, 

 until thy doom is accomplished ; whether taken 



