CH. VIII.] " PARTURIUNT MONTES, NASCETUR &C." 113 



"all right/' shouted for the fisherman to come 

 down with the gaff from the boat where he was 

 in attendance on a friend. I soon found, with 

 some disappointment, that I had not so much 

 to contend against as I expected, and asked the 

 man on the bank, who was still anxiously watch- 

 ing my proceedings, whether he was quite certain 

 it was the big fish that I had got hold of. He 

 answered that there was no doubt at all about it, 

 and I still hoped against my better judgment, 

 but was soon disgusted at finding that I was 

 right, when the fish, on being gaffed, turned out 

 to be only five pounds and a half, instead of some 

 twenty-five, which he ought at least to have been, 

 had his length been really that which it was re- 

 presented to be. The man could scarcely believe 

 his eyes when the fish came out of the water, nor 

 understand how he could have been so egregiously 

 mistaken 1 . 



Something of the same kind (though indeed 

 in this instance the fish was judged of the same 

 weight out of the water as in it) occurred to me 



1 Since this was written, a Jack of thirty-eight pounds 

 was caught with a live bait this spring (1859) in the exact part 

 of the river referred to. This was, I have no doubt, the very 

 fish that I was trying for, and the marks of whose teeth I had 

 seen in the smaller Jack. 



