SALMON-FISHING. 71 



line to reach the smooth black water, full of sub- 

 merged eddies, beyond the influence of the force of 

 the torrent, and I begin ; once — twice — thrice does 

 the fly perform its allotted circuit and return to me 

 unmolested ; but the fourth time, just as I am in 

 the act of withdrawing it from the water for another 

 cast, the bowels of the deep are agitated, and, 

 preceded by a wave impelled and displaced by 

 his own bulk, flounders heavily and half out of 

 the water a mighty salmon. Broad was he, 

 and long to boot, if I may trust an eye not 

 unaccustomed to such apparitions ; his white and 

 silvery side betokening his recent arrival from the 

 German Ocean, the slightly roseate hues of his 

 back and shoulders giving unfailing evidence, if 

 corroborative evidence were wanting, after one 

 glimpse of that spade-like tail, of a *' salmo salar " 

 of no common weight and dimensions. My heart 

 — I confess it leaped up to my very mouth — but 

 he has missed the fly, and an anxious palpitating 

 five minutes which I always reluctantly allow 



