THE OTTER 263 



in our course ; then the flame soon gleamed upon 

 the bridge, struck upwards on the roof of the vast 

 arch as we shot through it, and revealed the dark 

 pines below, which shelved down to the margin of the 

 river. 



We were now in a salmon cast called " the Whirls" 

 which runs deep and solemn, and we had scarcely 

 set our leisters in the rest, ere we found that a fisher- 

 man had been to work before us, and an excellent 

 hand he was at the sport ; he had neither light nor 

 boat, and, being tolerably hungry, I suppose, was 

 devouring a twelve-pounder, all raw as it was, in 

 the dry channel of the river. 



" See ! the otter, the otter ! he has got into the 

 water. Bring round the boat quick, quick. Now 

 keep her on the edge of the deep current, and we shall 

 leister him to a certainty/' No such thing. He had 

 not yet made up his mind to be leistered ; and, being 

 of a solitary disposition, rather shunned our society 

 than otherwise ; so, instead of attempting to gain 

 the main stream, he went insidiously down the 

 shallows, where no boat could swim. He was thus 

 out of the reach of being speared in the usual manner ; 

 but Charlie Purdie had a go at him by flinging his 

 leister from a distance 



" Nequicquam patrias tentasti lubricus artes, 

 Vane Ligur." 



It was a complete failure. Charlie followed up the 

 thing, however, by leaping out of the boat ; nothing 

 could be fairer or more honourable, as he thus gave 

 the amphibious animal the advantage of element. 

 The men were all eager and in commotion ; so what 



