230 HIGHLAND SPORT 



us in what to me was then a novel manner. Alas, now in 

 my old age I am but too well aware of their fell designs, and 

 how difficult they are to defeat ! 



"We then entered water as black as night, which smelt and 

 tasted in a most nauseating way, so more by feeling than by 

 sight we hastily continued our downward course, but not 

 without the loss of many lives, as thousands of the weakly 

 ones amongst us succumbed to the effects of the filthy fluid 

 in which we found ourselves. After some time we were once 

 more able to see, and then as we were revived from the 

 dreadful journey by a deliciously stimulating but unknown 

 taste, I recalled to mind what I had heard the great ones of my 

 race saying to each other in the pool of my birth as they 

 talked over this delightful relish while longing to enjoy it 

 once more. Very soon after this the river had gone altogether, 

 and we found ourselves in vefy deep, clear, quiet water. 

 Greedily our gills drank in the tonic surrounding us, while 

 our mouths were incessantly busy in satisfying the enormous 

 appetite we all now felt, for one mouthful of this water appeared 

 to contain more food than the river had afforded us in a whole 

 day ; also we gorged ourselves on tiny fish while passing our 

 spare time in leaping, playing and rejoicing in the pellucid 

 depths. 



" For some sixty sunsets this life continued, while as we 

 never ceased to eat, we grew big and strong at a great rate. 

 During this time our chief enemies were the gulls and the coal 

 fish, for as long as we were small the seals did not consider us 

 worthy of notice, so we had indeed a happy period, till at last 

 the whole of us were some twenty or thirty times heavier than 

 when we entered these regions of plenty. Then there came to 

 us all an irresistible desire to revisit the scenes of our babyhood. 

 Those amongst us who had been born lower down the river 

 than ourselves declared their intention of delaying their start, 

 and the nearer to the mouth of the river each company had 

 been born, the later they intended to make their departure. 



