THE SALMON. 125 



uncalculated directions, lashing the waters of the 

 lakes into no despicable resemblance to those of 

 the mighty ocean. I have known a heavy boat, 

 two or three tons weight, which had been laid keel 

 uppermost on the strand, lifted bodily into the air, 

 like one of Mr Home's mediums, and dashed down 

 two hundred feet off, breaking in its descent every 

 oaken rib in its body. I have known sheep blown 

 from the rock on which they were feeding and 

 drowned in the lake below. I have seen the waters 

 collected in the form of a wheel, whirled round and 

 carried upwards a hundred feet or more, and then 

 descend in a mass sufficient to swamp a boat. For 

 lake-fishing, especially salmon-fishing, the weather 

 cannot be too wild, the water cannot be too rough ; 

 and it was on one of the wildest and roughest of 

 days that my friend G. H., one of the best fishermen 

 who ever threw a fly, and myself, accompanied by 

 Captain H. as our Palinurus, embarked on the 

 " Black Lake." We had scarcely a mile to row to 

 our fishing-ground, but it was considerably over 

 an hour when we reached it. But for the excite- 

 ment, it would have been wearisome to mark the 

 bunch of heather or the black stone precisely 

 opposite to which, for some five minutes, despite 

 the strongest efforts of our men, we would pitch 

 and toss, apparently without gaining an inch 



