A VORACIOUS SALMON. 171 



appearance of benevolent feeling in much of his con- 

 versation, which I have not thought it necessary to 

 mention, that no one could avoid being taken with him. 



I commenced operations at the Carry-wheel, which is 

 nearly at the head of the Pavilion-water, and had not 

 made four casts before I hooked a fish. He was evi- 

 dently diminutive ; but, dwarf as he was, he thought a 

 good deal of himself, and was prodigal of the little 

 strength which nature had given him. I thought him 

 conceited, and so hauled him on shore at once without 

 any ceremony. He proved to be a river trout of four 

 pounds, — a silly-looking creature enough. 



Well, I went forward and caught a few gilses and 

 salmon in the upper Pavilion-water, not worth men- 

 tioning, except as the sport had the effect of rousing 

 my new friend from his abstraction ; indeed I met with 

 nothing remarkable till I came to the Kingswell Lees. 

 Now every one knows that the Kingswell Lees, in 

 fisherman's phrase, fishes off land ; so there I stood on 

 terra dura amongst the rocks that dip down to the 

 water's edge. Having executed one or two throws, 

 there comes me a voracious fish, and makes a startling- 

 dash at " Meg with the muckle mouth." Sharply did I 

 strike the caitiff; whereat he rolled round disdainful, 

 making a whirl in the water of prodigious circum- 

 ference : it was not exactly Charybdis, or the Maelstrom, 

 but rather more like the wave occasioned by the sudden 

 turning of a man-of-war's boat. Being hooked, and 

 having by this turn set his nose peremptorily down the 

 stream, he flashed and whizzed away like a rocket. My 

 situation partook of the nature of a surprise. Being on 

 a rocky shore, and having a bad start, I lost ground 



