70 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 



the united kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. 

 But fill your tumblers and ho ! Meg, cook this 

 fellow of a fish in a style we love, and fetch him 

 in smoking, like a Dutchman, and girdled with 

 viands victuals, I mean meats, rural and urban, of 

 all kinds and flavours, to suit all palates, likings, and 

 opinions. You have knocked the dormouse out of 

 Gaff's pate, and pricked up our jaded selves once more. 

 Skulk not, Bill ; and thou, Hackle, top off thy freezing 

 dregs, and fill anew to our worthy and scientific 

 brothers of the angle Tom Otter and Jack Leister 1 

 Hurra ! 



Otter. I would, Doctor, thou wert a salmon, with 

 one of my black barbs run through the tough gristles 

 of thy tongue. The capers of the kangaroo were not 

 so nimble as thine would be. How thou would 'st 

 bound from the surface, and dart indignant through 

 the water a run of forty fathoms ! nothing less 

 could I allow thee in a broad river like the Tweed. 



Gaff. Let me tell thee, Tom, thou would'st find 

 him ill to manage with seven such lengths of line. 

 No common fish 'twould be which had the Doctor's 

 mettle to assist it, leaving his cunning entirely out 

 of the question. He would shake the best rod to 

 shivers, and take the sinew out of your ablest horse- 

 hair, almost ere your eye caught the sparkle of his 

 broad flank, or the jut of his dorsal fin. 



Swivel. Ay ! ay ! Tim, thou art right. Make 

 a salmon of me, Master Otter ! Show thyself a 



