250 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING 



sitting on the boats, and on the masses of rock beside 

 them on the water edge. 



All being now ready, a light was struck ; and the 

 spark being applied to rags steeped in pitch, and to 

 fragments of tar-barrels, they blazed up at once 

 amid the gloom, like the sudden flash from the 

 crater of a volcano. The ruddy light glared on the 

 rough features and dark dresses of the leisterers in 

 cutting flames directly met by black shadows an 

 effect which those will best understand who in the 

 Eternal City have seen the statues in the Vatican 

 by torch-light. Extending itself, it reddened the 

 shelving rocks above, and glanced upon the blasted 

 arms of the trees, slowly perishing in their struggle 

 for existence amongst the stony crevices ; it glowed 

 upon the hanging wood, on fir, birch, broom, and 

 bracken, half veiled, or half revealed, as they were 

 more or less prominent. The form of things remote 

 from the concentrated light was dark and dubious ; 

 even the trees on the summit of the brae sank in 

 obscurity. 



The principals now sprang into the boats. Harry 

 Otter stood at the head, and Charlie Purdie at the 

 stern. These men regulated the course of the craft 

 with their leisters ; the auxiliaries were stationed 

 between them, and the light was in the centre by the 

 boat side. The logs, steeped as they were in pitch, 

 crackled and burned fiercely, sending up a column 

 of black smoke. As the rude forms of the men rose 

 up in their dark attire, wielding their long leisters, 

 with the streaks of light that glared partially upon 

 them, and surrounded as they were by the shades of 



