218 SPOUTS AND ANECDOTES. 



fellows I set to work, and had not been very long 

 at it before, by Jove, I was into him, and in event 

 of time I landed my first salmon, and there he was 

 safe upon the bank. Not as fresh a run fish, it is 

 true, as if he had been killed within six or seven 

 miles of the sea, but a very good fish considering he 

 had come all the way from Rotterdam, which is about 

 three hundred miles from the falls of the Rhine. 

 He was quite red as to his flesh, and firm, and good 

 to eat, somewhat long in shape, but not bad coloured, 

 and as red as a fox, which some fish are that have 

 been long in fresh water. In short, if I had caught 

 him with a cucumber tied to his tail, which all 

 salmon ought to have, he would have been a capital 

 fish. 



There were, as far as I could find out, only two 

 or three places where the fish used to lie, and one 

 in particular was almost a sure find ; it was, however, 

 from being under a huge chestnut-tree, and close 

 to a steep stone wall, somewhat difficult to fish. 

 Practice, nevertheless, makes perfect, and I became 

 quite a dab, and used to compliment myself silently 

 upon the way in which I used to manoeuvre my 

 line under the most difficult circumstances. It was 

 most intricate navigation, and almost impossible to 



