166 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING 



firma, my hero looked ruefully at the torrents : one 

 alone appeared something like being practicable ; 

 and it was one that, in the mean state of the river, 

 was nothing but a dry channel. Whether our small 

 craft could shoot down it without foundering or not 

 was by no means evident to the eye, though a 

 practised one, of the explorer. He was, however, 

 somewhat encouraged by two fishermen who were 

 mending their nets. They thought, they said, that 

 we " might possibly descend in safety, if we managed 

 our boats well." Charlie looked, and sighed, and 

 looked again : the thing was evidently not in 

 harmony with his ideas ; for he could not swim 

 himself, and he doubted whether his boat would 

 either, when it arrived at the bottom of the fall. 

 However, I decided that I would try the thing 

 alone ; and if it should prove a failure, the example 

 was not, of course, to be followed. So I brought 

 my little boat some way above the cataract, with 

 her head up the stream, and by rowing against it 

 let her fall by degrees stern foremost, by which 

 means I had a clear view before me, and could 

 therefore steer to a nicety. She went down most 

 agreeably, though in nearly a vertical position, but 

 pitched upon a rock below the fall ; but before 

 any harm happened, I swung her off by inclining 

 my body to and fro. My fisherman followed success- 

 fully ; and having passed the wide-spreading Linn, 

 the channel of the Tay became more contracted, 

 and we resumed our former pace, shooting down 

 the rapids like an arrow, and by occasional swift 

 snatches of the oars avoiding the breakers around 



