Salmon Fishing. 145 



happy eve of being realized, the fish rushed 

 back to some deepish water a few yards off, and 

 on a sudden the line became stationary, though 

 still on the same strain. Just at this time a 

 friend came up, and called out to him that there 

 was a stake there, with a gorse-bush round it, 

 and that doubtless the fish was fast on it. 

 Without the smallest hesitation in dashed the 

 excited captain, and was up to his neck in water 

 in a moment. "Oh! Oh! Oh!" exclaimed he 

 in an agonized voice, with his face contorted 

 into the most rueful expression of abject misery! 

 The water (it was in the month of February) 

 was frightfully cold, and its wicked embrace 

 seemed as though a dozen sharp knives were 

 piercing his body at once. The upshot was, 

 that he lost the fish, was chilled almost to death 

 with the cold, and had to hasten back to be 

 in time for the train, with scarcely a spare 

 moment to strip off his dripping clothes. His 

 feelings I will leave to the reader to imagine, 

 when he was left in the cool hour of reflection in 



