

Fly-Fifhing. 77 



fuccefs he expected follow his manoeuvres, he 

 flopped (hort, and declared he would go no fur- 

 ther, fuggefting I had better difmount at once. 

 Oh ! my friend, thinks I, this is the mifchief you 

 are up to, is it? So I caught him tight by the 

 neck, juft preffing my two thumbs upon it fuffi- 

 ciently hard, to remind him that if he felt inclined 

 to drown me, I fully intended to throttle him firft. 

 There I fat, like the old man of the fea on the back 

 of Sinbad \ and had you feen us, kind reader, from 

 the bank, you would have enjoyed the fpe&acle, 

 all the more from being on " terra firma " your- 

 felf. 



The ftruggle was a {harp but fhort one. Not 

 only did I force my reluctant bearer to land me 

 fafely, but before I got off his back to promife, on 

 the word of a true Waltonian, to convey me acrofs 

 again when I required it. 



It feems that Pifcator had pra&ifed this fame 

 prank upon a friend of his, who was incafed in a 

 large " maclntojh" with complete fuccefs. It 

 was with no little pleafure he defcribed to me very 

 accurately, how the unhappy wight in queftion 

 had dropped from his back, with a fly jerk he had 

 contrived to give him, head foremoft into the midft 

 of the like whirling ftream we had juft left. Not 



