SALMON 243 



" Since those days, as I have devoted much trouble to 

 acquiring fuller information about the Foes and their wicked 

 ways, I now flatter myself I know as much about them and 

 their devices as they know about me. The great problem 

 I had set myself to solve was as to how we might avoid 

 the perils besetting us in sea and river. It must be borne 

 in mind that I had been caught as a smolt by a small fly, 

 as a grilse by an insect, as a kelt by a minnow, and then by 

 a net, and though my luck had been great in escaping each 

 of these perils, the miserable fate of such multitudes of my 

 friends had left me with an implacable feeling of resentment 

 against the Foe. 



"Immersed then in twenty fathoms of deep sea thought, 

 I waited till the time came when many of us wanted to return 

 to the joys of the river. Following in the rear of the first 

 expedition that started, I soon saw the usual walls of netting 

 standing out from the seashore, only they seemed to be 

 even more numerous than in the past year, while a cursory 

 inspection of these engines of destruction drove me back to 

 the depths. There I met many others who having also made 

 the river journey, survived to tell the tale, and by degrees 

 we formed our plans. As every few weeks lapsed, I sent off 

 a scout to the seashore with instructions to observe if the 

 dreaded nets were still there, till at length one day our 

 messenger returned with the good news of their disappearance. 

 This scouting I had been induced to do by something I had 

 overheard three seals say to each other. They had been 

 lying on a rock basking in the sun, and had spoken very 

 confidently of a time coming when all the nets in sea and 

 river would vanish for a period. Ugh ! then those horrid 

 monsters discussed with much gusto an anticipated banquet 

 of salmon ! 



" On communicating this news of the vanishing of the nets 

 to my friends, I was unanimously elected leader of our band ; 

 so, calling them together, we started off for Dee mouth, which 



