THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 21 







gled from my resting-place, and, after one or 

 two abortive attempts at swimming, which re- 

 sulted in a circular, aimless movement, I found 

 myself carried out of ear- shot down stream. 

 By the time that I had quite recovered myself, 

 and, with the careless and elastic spirit of 

 youth, had already forgotten the severe lesson 

 I had experienced, I found myself on the brink 

 of a precipice, over which, to what unknown 

 depths I could not guess, the great river was 

 hurried in ceaseless flow. This was the caulcl, 

 or dam, that by the supernatural agency of the 

 wondrous wizard, Michael Scott, ' bridled the 

 Tweed with a curb of stone,' just above the 

 beautiful old abbey of Melrose. Pausing for a 

 second to collect my energies, instinctively I 

 turned my head up-stream, and, swimming 

 with all my power against it, allowed myself to 

 be carried over the rock, and down into the 

 foaming water below. The shock was much 

 less in reality than in anticipation ; I speedily 

 recovered my senses, and, blithe and free, re- 

 sumed my downward course. I may mention 

 here, that this manoeuvre of swimming tail 

 first was constantly practised by us whenever 

 the force of the stream was too great to allow 



