74 Salmon Fishing. 



been piled on the top, and I told her to take 

 them to the old lady within, her silent fit fairly 

 broke down ; and neither could she, or her 

 mistress, who then joined us, cease for a long 

 while descanting on the beauty of the fish, or 

 praising the liberality of the donor. 



I could recount instances of the like greedi- 

 ness of salmon to take the fly, just before a 

 change of weather, and during the first hour 

 or two of the falling rain ; but such, I am well 

 aware, is not the case in general. 



To revert, however, to the salmon in question ; 

 as rain fell on the following night to some 

 extent, may I not venture to conclude, that 

 instinct told them what they had to expect, 

 and that they either gambolled in play at the 

 prospect, or felt uneasy, they knew not why, 

 moved by sensations, not very dissimilar perhaps 

 to those of many of their human persecutors on 

 dry land, when sudden-fits of langour or peevish- 

 ness, they cannot account for, take possession of 

 them ? 



