DEDICATORY EPISTLE. Vll 



shoes, were often the only reminiscences 

 we had of civilised life, should identify 

 himself with my fictitious Thomas. 



But while I have avoided individualising 

 my characters, I will vouch for the authen- 

 ticity of my facts : they may not have hap- 

 pened in the precise order in which I have 

 arranged them, nor exactly in the very 

 localities in which I have placed them, hut 

 facts they are, and unembellished facts, too. 

 I have not added an ounce to the weight of 

 my fish, nor a fish to the recorded amount 

 of a day's capture ; everything commemo- 

 rated has been duly chronicled at one time 

 or other, either in my own journals or in 

 those of a friend. I am the identical Par- 

 son whose hat was taken off bv the eagle ; 

 my father is the identical Squire who landed 

 the schoolmaster. While some of the anec- 

 dotes, such as the pious wish of the old 

 woman about the mould-candles, and the 

 subsequent catch of the heavy salmon from 



