Salmon Fishing. 149 



" Good heavens, what a swell !" 

 were words that dropped from me, as glibly as 

 the most polished of phrases, when sauntering 

 up the river, I suddenly caught sight of an 

 angler hard at work with his rod, not far ahead. 

 "What a swell!'' Were Johnson to peep out 

 of his grave, with the gift of hearing unimpaired, 

 what would he think of the multitude of words 

 and phrases in common parlance at the present 

 day ; most, if not all of them coined, either to 

 suit an occasion, or carry out an idea, irre- 

 spective often of grammatical construction, as 

 well as common sense ; and yet used in general 

 by men of every description ? Indebted, I know 

 not to whom, for the term "swell" the genus 

 it embraces is a very comprehensive one. Swells 

 military and naval ; swells clerical and unclerical ; 

 swells of the bar, and the counter ; swells of the 

 town, and swells of the country; swells old 

 and young, male and female! And yet before 

 the above-mentioned object caught my sight, 

 I had no idea there existed fishing-swells. The 



