THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 25 



more of whom are attached to each water, are 

 fundi officiis, and their places supplied by 

 water-bailiffs, to one of whom is frequently en- 

 trusted three or four miles of river, and who is 

 somehow invariably at the farthest part of the 

 beat, whilst his kinsmen, and possibly former 

 comrades, are stopping the ascending or ' leis- 

 tering ' the spawning fish." 



I have always doubted in my own mind 

 whether the above lucubrations emanated in 

 reality from my strange companion, or whether 

 they were not in fact the embodiment of my 

 own dreamy notions : for, truth to say, my 

 friend had become somewhat prosy, and an 

 " exposition of sleep " had come over me. I 

 roused myself, however, and listened with 

 marked attention as he proceeded in his natural 

 tone : 



" At last, then, we had attained the goal of 

 our hopes, the unknown object of our yearning 

 aspirations ; and never were wishful anticipa- 

 tions offspring of the promptings of Nature 

 more abundantly satisfied. Not only did the 

 novel element in which we found ourselves 

 for so unlike was it to that which we had 

 hitherto inhabited, it might properly be so 



