OF A SALMON. 57 



Then we shall not see poor Salmo safe after 

 all ! He has got into the cage ! 



Not into the cage exactly, but into the pool 

 belonging to it ; and out of that pool there is 

 sometimes only one way, that is, into the cage 

 itself; sometimes there are two; never more than 

 three. To day, as the river is full, and the 

 lawful sluice, (only eighteen inches wide), not 

 unlawfully dammed up, he has his choice of the 

 three. He can either make his way through the 

 said sluice on the one hand, and by a vigorous 

 effort, such as no one unacquainted with the 

 powerful rush of a salmon could believe possible, 

 he can force his way through tire half open flood 

 gates, and undeterred by any such fears as 

 affected Sancho Panza, he can pass under the 

 very wheels of the fulling mill into the river 

 above. Or he can leave both sluice and cage to 

 his right, and urging his way between the two 

 piers up the current of water which foams be- 

 tween them, he may finally make the only safe 

 leap that is left him. Or, he may yield to the 

 most inviting and probable theory " in media 

 tutissimiis" and tempted by the greater body of 

 water which with that object is generally allowed 

 to pass through the cage itself, he may venture 

 under the grating of that little building erected 



