54 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 



beyond doubt, and can teach him the four cardinal 

 points with a few twists of my arm. You see now 

 how submissively he comes to land, and turns his 

 broad, starry-side uppermost upon the channel. 

 Four pounds and a half is his weight, barring three 

 ounces, arid a lovelier trout seldom kissed the 

 shore. 



Otter. We must have him at supper an hour 

 hence. That black beetle of yours, Leister, is a 

 witch! I have twirled a minnow over this hole 

 fifty times, and not shaken a single fin. It will be 

 long ere it get another such resident as this! What 

 an ogre the fellow must have been to travelling par 

 and the young wanderers of its own species ! How 

 startled they would be when he dashed after them, 

 with his grim jaws horribly expanded! Methinks 

 I behold the swarms floundering on these shallows 

 opposite, earnest to escape from the inexorable can- 

 nibal. It is not a straggler he seizes, but the plumpest 

 and foremost of the shoal a nimble, silver-sided 

 water-pet, which one would have imagined could 

 beat him hollow in the chase. But my rod is idle, 

 and time flies. I shall only beat down this pool 

 with my minnow, and give over. 



Leister. It is almost time to do so. This dew is 

 falling to some purpose, and I have no wish to be 

 drenched altogether. What animal is that moving 

 among these rushes? You hear it, Tom? 



Otter. Ay, Jack ; it is an otter, or I mistake. 

 He is at some distance from the water, and had we 



