184 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING 



fishing, though I have had some sharp encounters, 

 yet I never knew any sport equal to this. I am out 

 of breath even now whenever I think of it. I will 

 trouble any surveyor to measure the distance from 

 the Kingswell Lees, the starting spot, above Melrose 

 Bridge, to the end of the Cauld Pool, the death 

 place, by Melrose Church, and to tell me how much 

 less it is than a mile and three-quarters I say I 

 will trouble him to do so ; and let him be a lover of 

 the angle, that he may rather increase than diminish 

 the distance, as in good feeling and respect for the 

 craft it behoves him to do. I will likewise thank my 

 contemporaries and posterity to bear in mind that 

 the distance about to be measured by this able sur- 

 veyor was run at an eclipse pace, always allowing 

 for some slight abatement in speed pending our im- 

 mersion. 



Whilst I was taking a rest on the greensward, the 

 heated face of my excellent new friend appeared 

 through the alders. He could not, however, be 

 fairly said to be in at the death ; the coup de grace 

 having been already given about five minutes. He 

 expressed the greatest astonishment at the swiftness 

 and result of the race, and at the power of the fish, 

 who had been able to distress two full-grown men so 

 completely. He owned he was much excited, but 

 thought fishing for salmon would be too turbulent 

 an amusement for him ; though perhaps he might 

 have kept up with a good pony, had the ground 

 been passable by such a beast. Poussin, Virgil, the 

 Apennines, all were forgotten ; and he began to 

 enter warmly into the spirit of the present, and was 



