62 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 



the united kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. 

 But, fill your tumblers and ho ! Meg, cook this 

 fellow of a fish in the style we love, and fetch him 

 in smoking, like a Dutchman, and girdled with vi- 

 ands victuals, I mean meats, rural and urban, of 

 all kinds and flavours, to suit all palates, likings, 

 and opinions. You have knocked the dormouse 

 out of Gaff's pate, and pricked up our jaded selves 

 once more. Skulk not, Bill ; and thou, Hackle, 

 top off thy freezing dregs, and fill anew to our wor- 

 thy and scientific brothers of the angle Tom Otter 

 and Jack Leister ! Hurra ! 



Otter. I would, Doctor, thou wert a salmon, with 

 one of my black barbs run through the tough gris- 

 tles of thy tongue. The capers of the kangaroo 

 were not so nimble as thine would be. How thou 

 would'st bound from the surface, and dart indignant 

 through the water a run of forty fathoms ! no- 

 thing less could I allow thee in a broad river like 

 the Tweed. 



Gaff. Let me tell thee, Tom, thou would'st find 

 him ill to manage with seven such lengths of line. 

 No common fish 'twould be which had the Doctor's 

 mettle to assist it, leaving his cunning entirely out 

 of the question. He would shake the best rod to 

 shivers, and take the sinew out of your ablest horse- 

 hair, almost ere your eye caught the sparkle of his 

 broad flank, or the jut of his dorsal fin. 



Swivel. Ay! ay! Tim, thou art right. Make 

 a salmon of me, Master Otter! Shew thyself a 



