122 BY MEADOW AND STREAM. 



salmon that knew even less about the niceties of 

 salmon fishing than I did. He seized the fly firmly 

 before I could pull it away ; and then in a moment I 

 found myself attached to a creature with the strength 

 of a whale and the agility of a flying fish. He led me 

 rushing up and down the bank like a madman. He 

 played on the surface like a whirlwind, and sulked at 

 the bottom like a stone. He meditated, with ominous 

 delay, in the middle of the deepest pool, and then, 

 darting across the river, flung himself clean out of the 

 water and landed far up on the green turf of the 

 opposite shore. My heart melted like a snowflake in 

 the sea, and I thought that I had lost him for ever. 

 But he rolled quietly back into the water, with the 

 hook still set in his nose. A few minutes afterwards 

 I brought him within reach of the gaff, and my first 

 salmon was glittering in the grass beside me. Then 

 I remembered that Wm. Black had described this 

 very fish in * The Princess of Thule. ' I pulled the 

 book from my pocket, and, lighting a pipe, sat down 

 to read that chapter over again. . . . His salmon, 

 after leaping across the strram, got away, whereas 

 mine was safe." 



He spent a pleasant fortnight at Melvich, where 

 he found " comfortaible lodgin' wi', the Weedow 

 Macphairson." When the widow, by subtle cross- 

 examination, discovered that he was a minister, she 

 brought out the big Bible and a bottle of old Glenlivet, 

 and asked him to conduct evening worship, and to 

 " tak a glass o' speerits to guard against takkin' cauld." 



Now we come to a delightful chapter called ' ' The 

 Restigouche from a Horse-boat." The names of the 



