A Sportsman at Large 287 



her child ! Of course, it was utterly impossible for Tolle 

 to row anywhere near the fall of the Foss, in fact he could not 

 move a single yard up-stream. I knew this ; so directly I saw 

 what had happened I bade him wrench the scow back to the 

 landing-stage, where I seized a long-handled gaff and ran as 

 quickly as I could lay heels to the ground to the mouth of the 

 straits, thinking that perhaps the poor girl would be borne 

 past me, where, by hanging on with one hand to an ash sap- 

 ling which overgrew the water, I could just cover the breadth 

 of the narrows. 



Hardly was I posted, when I saw a mass being swirled 

 towards me ; but as it was swept past, I recognized it as the 

 spaniel dog which, being carried by the stream near the surface, 

 had escaped the fatal " under-tow " which had dragged its 

 mistress to her death. The dog was carried swiftly down 

 through the straits, and into the Adsen Pool, where it landed, 

 safe and sound, on the shelving beach. 



By this time there was a large assembly on the banks of 

 the Foss Pool. Another scow was brought along and a 

 careful search made ; but it was fully an hour and a half before 

 we set eyes on the luckless girl. She was found in twenty 

 feet of slack water, where, on the edge of the main stream, 

 it was so clear that we could see her lying there on her back, 

 with her long golden hair swept over her face by the shifting 

 currents. By lashing a gaff on to an eighteen-foot salmon rod, 

 we were able to draw the poor creature to the surface and into 

 the scow. When we landed, the grief and despair of the poor 

 mother was piteous to behold. Seeing that she was utterly 

 distraught we took no notice of her reiterated curses upon us 

 for not having saved her child ! 



I may here state that, a few days later, she called upon us 

 and begged us to forgive her for accusing us of cowardice ; for 

 now she realized how utterly impossible it was for any human 

 being to have averted the tragedy, when once the victim 

 was over the fall. 



The younger girl, too, was prostrate with grief ; but when 

 she became coherent, she explained how the accident had 

 happened. 



It seems that she had persuaded her cousin to crawl over the 



