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THE EIVER SHIN. 



Classic Shin, on whose heath-clad banks and 

 flowing waters the great and good fly fishers 

 roam, who never saw " Kelt of Baggit" tliere — 

 the haunt of monarchs of the sea, and shep- 

 herd swains that watch His flocks, and feed His 

 Dams — the theme of poetess, and the learned. 

 O, "Ephemera," how beautifully written is 

 that "Book of the Salmon;" how exquisitely 

 delineated that "Ova;" how admirably that 

 " golden fish," which bounds up falls and cata- 

 racts in that purling "meandering" stream; 

 how charming to gaze upon that lovely " God- 

 dess of the Brooks" — the famed Ondine — how 

 rightly represented. Oh ! excellent " Ephe- 

 mera" — my good and constant friend — the 

 " great and good Will Blacker's" tears (I blush) 

 descend like rain through these sky lights, and 

 damp the very sheets my palsied pen doth 

 blot. Alas! well-a-day — that noble salmon 

 fishing — what sport ! These lean and bellows'd 

 sides are winded — this flattened chest, once 

 full, now dented — these calves, once plump, 

 now thin and gone — these shins, once clad, are 



