Salmon FisJiing. 1 77 



dog, to authorise the natural doubt, whether it 

 does not amount to absolute reason itself ? If 

 the dog in question shewed such undoubted 

 evidence of sense and reflection which, from his 

 whole manoeuvres, I must contend he did, how 

 far distant from the combination of the two 

 could reason stand aloof ? 



Such a respect have I for dogs in general, in 

 spite of cantankerous curs, that when I see 

 errand-boys an ill-mannered, unruly set 

 throwing stones at them, how do my fingers 

 itch to castigate them with a few strokes of such 

 a cane, as in " barbarous times'" (?) in my school- 

 boy days, I used to tremble at the sight of, when 

 in the hands of our peppery old pedagogue. 



Of fishermens' " fancies," perhaps, there is not 

 one more frequent than that of measuring the 

 size of salmon by the length of time they 

 take in landing them. A most memorable 

 instance of this I was a personal eye-witness 

 of not very long ago. 



Having strolled down to the river later than 



