INTRODUCTORY. 31 



cations of the drowning man. These, however, were 

 becoming every moment less vehement. The force of 

 the stream had swept him forwards to a considerable 

 distance, and he was about to sink altogether, when 

 luckily Tom Otter landed his salmon, a thirty pounder, 

 gave it a few smart, killing raps on the head, and 

 hurried to the assistance of the exhausted sufferer. 

 He was not long in rescuing him, the part of the pool 

 to which the poacher had been carried being, although 

 deep, smooth and safe for an expert, venturous 

 swimmer, such as Otter was. The grilse, however, had 

 made its escape, after having broken the line to which 

 it was attached, and the rod likewise of the deserving 

 boor was somewhat injured. Of course, Tom swallowed 

 his curses with excellent humour, bowing profoundly 

 in acknowledgment of the mortified angler's good 

 wishes, and offering him the fins of his huge salmon 

 as a recompence for all loss and damage sustained 

 in his perilous voyage down the Tweed. He then 

 shouldered his fish, and trudged off to another pool, 

 with a snatch of an old ballad in his mouth. 



Otter's attachment to Tweedside was altogether 

 uncommon. The river to him seemed hallowed 

 water. He revered its banks and channels, its tri- 

 butaries, from their very sources, and all belonging 

 to it. With respect to other streams, he was wholly 

 indifferent. He depreciated, above all, the rivers 

 in the north of Scotland, where he happened to 

 sojourn for some months ; and although achieving 



