OBSTINACY OF THE OLD MAN. 277 



immediately below my perch, would doubtless have 

 turned the scales at ten pounds. I had only mo- 

 mentary views of him, still they sufficed to show the 

 brilliant robing of the American char, by far the 

 most gorgeously coloured of the Salmonidse that I 

 know of. A fly-rod and light tackle would afford its 

 happy possessor in this part of the world pleasure 

 never to be forgotten. 



With the decay of light an otter put in his 

 appearance, and with his advent the scaly inhabitants 

 of the placid stream disappeared. 



If my companion was not the most provokingly 

 obstinate old man living, he was the next to it ; and 

 the more I think, the more I am puzzled that his 

 utter recklessness had not deprived him of life long 

 before he reached so respectable an old age. By 

 reason of the up-country rains the stream was much 

 swollen and discoloured this morning ; and although 

 my venerable friend had not the most remote idea 

 of swimming, he attempted, in spite of all I could 

 say or do, to wade across to the other side, although 

 quite ignorant whether the river was thirty or three 

 feet deep. Moreover, the current, at the part where 

 he entered, was sufficiently swift to have borne a 

 raft or boat at the pace of four or five miles an 

 hour. 



Having long learned how useless it was to argue 

 with my companion, I sat upon the margin, and put 

 my trust in Providence, at the same time unfasten- 

 ing some of my outer garments, that I might be the 



