THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 39 



at the mouth of the river. The scarce-ebbing 

 tide brought with it the smell and taste of a 

 freshet, the result of the last night's rain, and 

 we stemmed the retreating tide more boldly as 

 we felt the assurance of good swimming- water 

 above. 



" It was Saturday morning; from that day 

 to Monday the river is free ; so for thirty hours 

 at least our persecutors were restrained from 

 crying ' Havoc ' upon our devoted race. No 

 net, no boat, stopped our way ; we swam 

 joyously up stream, and by noon that day had 

 passed the well-remembered Norham Bridge. 

 Here we met a little crowd of frightened fish, 

 returning to the sea, dismayed and disheartened, 

 as well they might be. This sparse band, scarce 

 half a score in number, were all that remained 

 of some five hundred noble fish who had at- 

 tempted the passage but the day before. They 

 had escaped the long sea-nets, and the more 

 deadly drags used in the river ; they had been 

 hunted in the shallows, and pelted in the streams, 

 and when they might fairly hope for rest and 

 safety, they had found themselves debarred 

 from the goal they sought, by a long, deep, 

 heavy net fastened right across the stream, 



