166 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED 



as well might one hope to shoot in safety down the 

 falls of Schaffhausen. 



I was prepared for all this, and was quite aware 

 of the impediment before I began my voyage ; so 

 I did as I had made up my mind to do before I 

 started. I pulled towards some alder trees which 

 grew on the bank above the fall, and held my 

 boat fast by the branches ; I then told Charlie to 

 secure his boat also with a rope, and to land and 

 reconnoitre. We were enabled to do these things 

 without much difficulty, as the water was in some 

 measure arrested in its course above the fall, being 

 slightly bayed back by the barrier of rocks. Being 

 on terra 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 with- 

 out foundering or not was by no means evident 

 to the eye, though a practised one, of the ex- 

 plorer. 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 



