124 A TEAR OF LIBERTY ; OR, 



' The Captain's awake.' This was enough. Tom knew his man 

 would risk life rather than lose his favourite throw. In less than a 

 minute the door flew open ; out rushed the deluded angler half 

 dressed, ignorant of the hour, in a drizzling rain and westerly gale, 

 to bide, as best he might, their pitiless buffeting through the long, 

 long night. Tom was revenged. He had paid his debt and a little 

 over. The whole was a inise, for I never dreamed of again entering 

 the lists against the invincible commander ; and the hit consisted in 

 giving him a Eoland for an Oliver in the shape of an unnecessary 

 airing of five or six hours on a squally night on one of the most 

 exposed spots in the barony." 



Anxious to give my companion full possession, I soon wished him 

 good sport, and strolled up the Mall. Having a few minutes to spare, 

 I determined to walk a couple of hundred yards farther, and see 

 what was going on under the falls. Throwing myself on the grassy 

 knoll which overhangs the fishhouse and the leap, I watched as 

 delightedly as ever the operation of draughting. A stout, well- 

 manned boat had just pushed from the shore, and was pulling at 

 gi-eat speed towards the foot of the cascade, the captain in the stern 

 delivering the heavy seine net as the crew dashed on. Now they 

 are within a foot of the mighty sheet of falling water, and, turning 

 close under a smooth rock on the southern bank, head back to the 

 starting point. The corks now show the circle is complete. All 

 hands to the ropes. Narrower and narrower grows the prison, more 

 desperate the struggles of the captives, more keen the interest of the 

 spectators. One heave all together, boys, and a hundred splendid 

 fish, such as no other river can show, unless, perhaps, it be the Spey, 

 are bounding on the floor of the boat. No time is lost between 

 death and interment. A few moments only elapse ere the salmon 

 are weighed, iced, and screwed down in the coffin-like boxes in which 

 they are conveyed to Liverpool, London, and perhaps Paris. I have 

 said they were such as probably no other river can show admire 

 their exquisite beauty of form and colour look for a moment at 

 their size ! There are a few of twelve, more of eighteen, numbers 

 from twenty to twenty-five, and perhaps two or three between forty 



