CH. VIII. | “‘ PARTURIUNT MONTES, NASCETUR &c.” 113 
“all right,” shouted for the fisherman to come 
down with the gaff from the boat where he was 
in attendance on a friend. I soon found, with 
some disappointment, that I had not so much 
to contend against as I expected, and asked the 
man on the bank, who was still anxiously watch- 
ing my proceedings, whether he was quite certain 
it was the big fish that I had got hold of. He 
answered that there was no doubt at all about it, 
and I still hoped against my better judgment, 
but was soon disgusted at finding that I was 
right, when the fish, on being gaffed, turned out 
to be only five pounds and a half, instead of some 
twenty-five, which he ought at least to have been, 
had his length been really that which it was re- 
presented to be. The man could scarcely believe 
his eyes when the fish came out of the water, nor 
understand how he could have been so egregiously 
mistaken’. 
Something of the same kind (though indeed 
in this instance the fish was judged of the same 
weight out of the water as in it) occurred to me 
1 Since this was written, a Jack of thirty-eight pounds 
was caught with a live bait this spring (1859) in the exact part 
of the river referred to. This was, I have no doubt, the very 
fish that I was trying for, and the marks of whose teeth I had 
seen in the smaller Jack. 
I 
