AVEIGHT TELLS. 119 



head down the river peremptorily, and went oiF like a 

 rocket. I ran with him down the channel, as he skunmed 

 through the shallows and darted through the rough 

 gorges, in evident danger, as I was, of losing him every 

 moment. At length he fairly exhausted himself, and I 

 was able to m'ge him to a sand bank, and lay him on 

 his broadside. 



The sand bank, however, had a few inches of w^ater 

 running over it, but not sufficient to cover the fish. 

 My attendant, Philip Garrat, had the tact to place 

 himself between the dee]) water and the fish. Then 

 came the struggle. A Wiltshire novice, like the said 

 Philip, could not hold a live salmon with his hands, 

 so he tried to kick liim forward on the dry channel. 

 All this time I hallooed stoutly to liim to take care of 

 the line. My anxiety was extreme ; for the fish was 

 sometimes able to place himself in a swimming posture, 

 and wriggle away near the deep water. In fact, had 

 there been but one inch of water moi*e over the sand 

 bank, he would have*had it all his own way. Philip, 

 aware of the danger, set at him wath redoubled activity, 

 kicking his fastest and best. But the event being still 

 doubtful, he knelt down and grappled with him ; and 

 finding him still slippery and elusive, he cast himself 

 bodily upon liim, and fixed him with his weight at once : 

 '^ Toto certatum est corpore regni." So thought he of 

 Macedonian appellation ; but he did not express himself 

 in such terms, being a man of no clerk-like capacity : 

 whatever he might have thought, he only said, looking 

 up Avith a grin of delight and with a Wiltshire accent, 

 " I got un, — be hanged if I ha'nt." 



I 4 



