A WOUNDED FISH. 51 



almost exhausted, and could have held out a very little 

 longer, I had the mortification to see him, by a kind of 

 tack in his course, work his way into the middle of the 

 current, just at its most rapid part, where it narrowed 

 before the cliff, taking a clear leap of twenty feet over 

 the cliff which barred its passage. Nothing I could do 

 could now secure him. My tackle was not stout enough 

 to resist the strength of the current, and there seemed 

 nothing for it but to give up all as lost. 



Just, however, at this juncture, Donald's presence 

 of mind and experience befriended me. Springing 

 forward, he took his stand on a rock projecting some 

 little way over the fall, and coolly balancing himself in 

 that dizzy position, put out the landing-net, and 

 catching my fish in the very act of descending, brought 

 and laid him in triumph at my feet. And so terminated 

 the severest struggle I myself had experienced, and of 

 which even Donald said, "I dinna mind a' graunder 

 fight." The fish had several sea-lice upon his head, 

 thus proving that he was just fresh from the sea : his 

 weight was afterwards found to be rather under fourteen 

 pounds. 



After tendering my thanks to Donald for his timely 

 aid, I sat down and watched him splice the top of my 

 rod. The rain had ceased, and warm as I was from 

 the excitement of the struggle, I did not feel the wet 

 state of my clothes ; and indeed the wind, which had 

 sprung up as the rain ceased, soon blew me, com- 

 paratively speaking, dry again. 



We continued the fishing for two or three hours 

 longer, and returned home with five salmon and a sea- 

 trout; my share of the spoil being three salmon, 

 weighing altogether twenty-six pounds. Walter took 

 two very good fish, weighing about seven pounds each, 



E2 



