ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 23 



tions of the drowning man. These, however, were 

 becoming every moment less vehement. The force 

 of the stream had swept him forwards to a consider- 

 able distance, and he was about to sink altogether, 

 when luckily Tom Otter landed his salmon, a thirty 

 pounder, gave it a few smart, killing raps on* the 

 head, and hurried to the assistance of the exhausted 

 sufferer. He was not long in rescuing him, the 

 part of the pool to which the poacher had been 

 carried being, although deep, smooth and safe for 

 an expert, venturous swimmer, such as Otter was. 

 The grilse, however, had made its escape, after 

 having broken the line to which it was attached, 

 and the rod likewise of the deserving boor was 

 somewhat injured. Of course, Tom swallowed his 

 curses with excellent humour, bowing profoundly 

 in acknowledgment of the mortified angler's good 

 wishes, and offering him the fins of his huge salmon 

 as a recompence for all loss and damage sustained 

 in his perilous voyage down the Tweed. He then 

 shouldered his fish, and trudged off to another pool, 

 with a snatch of an old ballad in his mouth. 



Otter's attachment to Tweedside was altogether 

 uncommon. The river to him seemed hallowed 

 water. He revered its banks and channels, its tri- 

 butaries, from their very sources, and all belonging 

 to it. With respect to other streams, he was wholly 

 indifferent. He depreciated, above all, the rivers 

 in the north of Scotland, where he happened to 

 sojourn for some months; and although achieving 



