154 SALMON FISHING IN CANADA. 



life, in an official situation, on a regular income, with but 

 slight and infrequent apprehensions of removal, had, no 

 doubt, contributed to make time pass lightly over him. 

 The original and more potent causes, however, lay in the 

 rare perfection of his animal nature. 



To hear him talk of roast meat was as appetizing as a 

 pickle or an oyster. It made one's mouth water to listen 

 to him expatiating on fish or poultry, and the most eligible 

 methods of preparing them for table. His reminiscences 

 of good cheer seemed to bring the savour of turkey or 

 lobsters under one's very nostrils. It w T as marvellous to 

 observe how the ghosts of bygone meals were continually 

 rising up before him, not in anger or in retribution, but as 

 if grateful for his former appreciation^ and seeking to 

 renew an endless series of enjoyment at once shadowy and 

 sensual. A tender loin of beef, a spare rib of pork, a par- 

 ticular magnum of claret, or a remarkably praiseworthy 

 jorum of punch, which had satiated his appetite or appeased 

 his thirst in days long gone by, would be remembered, 

 while all the subsequent experience of our race, all the 

 events that had brightened or darkened his individual 

 career, all memory of the friends who had clung to him in 

 his misfortunes, had as little effect upon him as the passing 

 breeze. 



His temper was as uncertain as the wind towards his 

 subordinates; sometimes familiar as a playfellow, at others 

 as imperious, overbearing, and unreasoning as a Turk. He 



