A SEASIDE YARX. 43 



but comparatively unknown rivers, which serve to 

 minister to the mighty giant streams in whose floods 

 their waters and names are together swept away. 

 It was morning, and the sharp call of the jungle-cock 

 and cry of the pea-fowl sounded shrilly from the 

 depths of the forest, whilst the wheetle-wheetlirig 

 and chirping of myriads of tiny creatures called into 

 activity and insect bustle by the rays of coming day 

 came up from amongst the tufted yellow reeds and 

 feathery grass. Just at the point at which I broke 

 cover, the river, after thundering over a high ledge, 

 took a sharp turn round a huge pile of black rock, 

 and then, with a wide sweeping eddy, formed as 

 glorious a pool as the most exacting of fly-fishers 

 ever waved wand over. But, alas ! no lordly salmon, 

 or agile speckled trout, leaps here. What those un- 

 known depths contain, who shall say ? Alligators pro- 

 bably, and what besides I fancy few would care to 

 dive for the purpose of ascertaining. Just by the 

 shoulder of the rock, under the shade of some trailing 

 plants, sat or rather perched some half-dozen dusky 

 "gentry of the neighbourhood," whose united tailors' 

 bills would have barely paid turnpike for a walking- 

 stick, each on his own particular stone, much like 

 some of the grotesque figures the Japanese delight in 

 representing fishing. After the first start of astonish- 

 ment at my sudden appearance on the scene of action, 

 friendly relations were at once established, and I had 



