124 THE SALMON. 



the tail fly had stuck into his gill as he made off. 

 Nae wonder he was strong, for he was aughteen 

 pund weight, clean run, an' I don't think that 

 ane of the kye yonder, heukit in the same manner, 

 could ha'e pulled much stronger. (Aye, mon ! ye 

 hae him noo /) " 



We have storms in England, storms in London, 

 when umbrellas are turned inside out, old ladies 

 blown against the lamp-posts, and falling chimney- 

 pots make pious sailors thankful that they do not 

 exercise their calling on such a dangerous element 

 as the land ; but such storms as these are Zephyr's 

 play when compared with the storms that visit the 

 wild Western coast of Ireland : the waves of the 

 Atlantic come rolling in, each a mile or more in 

 length, and of an unknown altitude, dashing them- 

 selves against the everlasting rock with a force 

 which would be irresistible, were it not exerted 

 against the immovable, then resolving themselves 

 into harmless spray, flung five hundred feet into 

 the air, or forming huge balls of foam, which bound 

 across the country like boys' footballs forty times 

 magnified. Further inland the mighty wind, 

 divided but not conquered by opposing head- 

 lands, rushes down through gorge and valley in 

 impetuous blasts, the more dangerous that they 

 come from all sorts of unsuspected quarters and 



