Salmon Fishing. 239 



most devoutly did I wish that I was well out of 

 the thraldom of the latter. As the struggle 

 went on, an encouraging bravo would burst now 

 and then from Peter's lips, which did me as 

 much good as a gulp from the whiskey-flask. 



We had come down already at least three 

 hundred yards from where the fish was first 

 hooked, and still was there no cessation, but, 

 if anything, an increase in the speed of the 

 latter. 



All at once to the alarm of Peter, and 

 astonishment of myself, something in the shape 

 of a stone, or root of a tree, caught my foot 

 below, and ere I could recover myself, I was 

 struggling in the torrent, with the whole of my 

 unlucky self under water, save the left side of 

 my face. How I managed to escape being 

 drowned, and to keep fast hold of the rod, is 

 a mystery to me. Had the current set in from 

 the shore, instead of towards it, the hand that 

 now holds the pen, must, I fear, long since have 

 been motionless. 



