

FATAL ACCIDENT. 163 



the rapids of the Gotha, as in such situations the slightest 

 mismanagement might have jeopardized us. Though on 

 several occasions nearly meeting with an accident, we always 

 escaped. Once, indeed, owing to the inadvertence of the 

 man, we were within an ace of being carried under Ny-Bro, 

 the hridge depicted a page or two back, in which case, from 

 the force of the current, and the terrible eddies in the pool 

 below, the chances would have been much against us. 



Though not very frequently, accidents did occur once now 

 and then, and in my time several individuals were drowned ; 

 amongst others, two poor young women in the service of a 

 family resident near the banks of the river. It was in the 

 middle of summer, and they had gone, as was their custom, 

 to bathe in a shallow hard by the house, when by some 

 mischance they were swept away by the current. A boy, 

 tending cattle in the neighbouring pasture, hearing their 

 cries, hastened to the spot, but one of them had then sunk 

 altogether, and the other, supported apparently by her clothes, 

 was floating down the rapid ; but there being no assistance 

 at hand, she also was presently engulphed. One of the poor 

 creatures could swim a little, and it was believed that in her 

 endeavours to save her companion, she herself lost her life. 

 I was not far distant at the time, and as soon as intel- 

 ligence of what had happened reached me, hastened to the 

 spot; but though we searched the river and its banks far 

 and near, nothing was to be seen of these unhappy young 

 women ; and it was not until some days afterwards that 

 their bodies were found in a pool below. 



To give a better idea of the fishing at Ronnum, I subjoin 

 a list of my individual performances with the rod during one 

 particular season. Two or three other seasons, however, 



M 2 



