BRILLIANTLY-MARKED FISH. 325 



my craving for visiting countries unsubdued by the 

 husbandman, not intruded upon by the settler, 

 or that remain exactly in the same state as they 

 emanated from the Creator's hands. And where is 

 this passion so thoroughly to be gratified as on the 

 boundless steppes, the barren wastes, the flower- 

 clothed prairies, the densely-planted forests, or ver- 

 dant savannahs of the Western Hemisphere ? But it 

 is not always possible to gratify o.ur cravings ; so time 

 rolled on, and boyhood glided into maturity, delay 

 in realising my wishes did not damp my ardour, 

 only made me more eager for the arrival of the time 

 when they could be consummated. Now I am obtain- 

 ing the consummation of my hopes, for I stand on the 

 margin of a stream not larger than a Scotch moun- 

 tain brook, which, clear and pellucid as liquid crystal, 

 with eager and unrestrained haste tumbles pre- 

 cipitously headlong from rock to rock. At one mo- 

 ment hurrying round a boulder, at another eddying 

 in deep shadowed pools, or lashing itself against 

 the rough margin, it hurries on towards the ocean 

 in whose embrace it loses all identity. Whence it 

 comes I know not ; whither it goes I am aware. 

 Before to-day I have been in positions to revel in 

 these thoughts, the tout ensemble might have been 

 adverse, or my thoughts wandering on other sub- 

 jects ; this evening they are revived with intensified 

 pleasure. 



I do not think I ever saw more brilliantly marked 

 specimens of fish of western waters than those I 



