SALMON PISHING. 235 



" Brave fellow ! his last race is run, his last spring sprung — no 

 more shall he disport himself in the bright reaches of the Tamar ; no 

 more shall the Naiads wreathe his clear silver scales with river-greens 

 and flowery rushes. 



" The cruel gaff is in his side — ^his cold blood stains the eddies for 

 a moment — ^he flaps out his death-pang on the hard limestone. 



" ' Who-whoop ! a nineteen pounder !' 



" Meantime the morning had worn onward, and ere the great fish 

 was brough to the basket, the sun had soared clear above the mist- 

 wreaths, and had risen so high into the summer heaven that his slant 

 rays poured down into the gorge of the stream, and lighted up the 

 clear depths with a lustre so transparent that every pebble at the 

 bottom might have been discerned, with the large fish here and there 

 floating mid depth, with their heads up stream, their gills working 

 with a quick motion, and their broad taUs vibrating at short intervals 

 slowly but powerfully, as they lay motionless in opposition to the very 

 strongest of the swift current. 



" The breeze had died away, there was no curl upon the water, and 

 the heat was oppressive. 



" Under such circumstances, to whip the stream was little better 

 than mere loss of time, yet as he hurried with a fleet foot down the 

 gorge, perhaps with some ulterior object, beyond the mere love of 

 sport, Jasper at times cast his fly across the stream, and drew it neatly, 

 and, as he thought, irresistibly, right over the recusant fish ; but though 

 once or twice a large lazy Salmon would sail up slowly from the 

 depths, and almost touch the fly with his nose, he either sunk down 

 slowly in disgust, without breaking the water, or flapped his broad tail 

 over the shining fraud as if to mark his contempt. 



" It had now got to be near noon, for, in the ardor of his success, 

 the angler had forgotten all about his intended breakfast ; and, his 

 first fish captured, had contented himself with a slender meal furnished 

 from out his fishing-basket and his leathern bottle. 



" Jasper had traversed by this time some ten miles in length, follow- 

 ing the sinuosities of the stream, and had reached a favorite pool at 

 the head of a long, straight, narrow trench, cut by the waters them- 

 selves in the course of time, through the hard shistous rock which walls 



