WEIGHT TELLS. 139 



attendant at a spot where T could follow along- the 

 bank, he put his head down the river peremptorily, 

 and went off like a rocket. I ran with him down the 

 channel, as he skimmed through the shallows and 

 darted through the rough gorges, in evident danger, as 

 I was, of losing him every moment. At length he 

 fairly exhausted himself, and I was able to urge him 

 to a sand bank, and lay him on his broadside. 



The sand bank, however, had a few inches of water 

 running over it, but not sufficient to cover the fish. 

 My attendant, Philip Garrat, had the tact to place 

 himself between the deep water and the fish. Then 

 came the struggle. A Wiltshire novice, like the said 

 Philip, could not hold a live salmon with his hands, 

 so he tried to kick him forward on the dry channel. 

 All this time I hallooed stoutly to him to take care of 

 the line. My anxiety was extreme ; for the fish was 

 sometimes able to place himself in a swimming posture, 

 and wriggle away near the deep water. In fact, had 

 there been but one inch of water more over the sand 

 bank, he would have had it all his own way. Philip, 

 aware of the danger, set at him with redoubled activity, 

 kicking his fastest and best. But the event being still 

 doubtful, he knelt down and grappled with him ; and 

 finding him still slippery and elusive, he cast himself 

 bodily upon him, and fixed him with his weight at 

 once : " Toto certatum est corpore regni." So thought 

 he of Macedonian appellation ; but he did not express 

 himself in such terms, being a man of no clerk-like 

 capacity : whatever he might have thought, he only 

 said, looking up with a grin of delight and with a 

 Wiltshire accent, " I got un, — be hanged if I ha'nt." 



