THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 57- 



dees from exhaustion when putten back into 

 the river. The rest might swim away an' be 

 thankful, an', if some of them dee, what are 

 they after a' but single fish ? ! 



"Whilst speaking, my friend had carefully 

 disengaged the hook from the gasping fish, 

 and, with one hand below its body beneath the 

 water, and the other grasping its tail, had 

 launched him, as it were, into the deep pool. 

 As it felt itself loosed from restraint, a convul- 

 sive effort of the tail drove the sickened, half- 

 alive beast some five feet diagonally across the 

 stream, and then it helplessly resigned itself to 

 the force of the water, floating unresistingly 

 down stream. Whether the good fish lived or 

 died I know not; but, if it died and many 

 that have been hooked, and fought well, I 

 know have died it were better that it should 

 have furnished food for human beings, than for 

 the foul-feeding carrion-crow, or the slimy 

 ravenous eel. 



" Time passed on, and still found me a 

 denizen of Brig End Pool. Fish came and 

 went, and some tarried beside me, and some 

 passed upward. The kelts, one and all, 

 dropped down the stream by degrees, and by 



