

A DAY UP THE RIVER. 119 



it ; and here the water, being spread over a 

 breadth of five or six yards, shallowed to 

 about the depth of a foot, and was so clear 

 that in the sunshine it seemed as if there 

 were no medium but air between the rock 

 and the spectator. 



It was upon this flat that the Captain was 

 making the preparations for his siege. His 

 resources were but small : his whole materiel 

 consisted of an unlimited supply of stones, 

 and of about six feet of eel-netting — a fabric 

 stout enough to hold some hundred weight 

 of struggling eels, and, consequently, not 

 very likely to escape the quick eye of a trout 

 under the glare of a mid-day sun. But the 

 Captain trusted to force rather than to 

 artifice. 



This net had been stretched across the 

 deepest part of the shoal water, propped up 

 here and there by triangles of sticks, for the 

 rock was much too solid to admit of their 

 being planted into the bottom ; and the 

 Captain on one side and the Scholar on the 

 other, each with his train of amateur fol- 

 lowers, were building up two loose stone 

 walls, one from each bank, slanting inwards, 

 and gradually narrowing the space, till they 



