234 Salmon Fishing. 



me as about the likeliest for a salmon of 

 any I had yet seen. Our want of success 

 in the two former ones confirmed Peter in the 

 opinion he offered on starting, that no salmon 

 would be killed till the water was lower. 



Acting on the advice I gave him, he lit his 

 pipe, and made himself comfortable, while I got 

 away a little by myself, apart from Peter's 

 watchful eyes. At the very top of the water 

 in question, almost in the centre of the seething 

 foam, I distinctly saw a large red fish come 

 at the fly, and miss it. Short, but very thick, 

 he looked not unlike a beer-barrel, with a head 

 and tail at each end. 



Very glad was I to break through the hard 

 crust of Peter's discouraging prophecy, who, I 

 verily believe, when I told him about it, put it 

 down to a distempered imagination, or figment 

 of fancy on my part. He had made up his 

 mind no fish would die at my hands that day, 

 and he stuck stubbornly to his text. When I 

 left him to resume my fishing, he was doing 



