ive pickled salmon, swimming about in tanks, as merry as grigs, and as
hungry as rats."

We all expressed our astonishment at this, and declared we never heard
of it before.

"I thought not," said he, "for it has only lately been introduced into
this country, by a particular friend of mine, Dr Mac--- I cannot just
now remember his damned jaw-breaking Scotch name; he was a great chymist
and geologist, and all that sort of thing--a clever fellow, I can tell
you, though you may laugh. Well, this fellow, sir, took nature by the
heels and capsized her, as we say. I have a strong idea that he had
sold himself to the devil. Well, what does he do, but he catches salmon
and puts them into tanks, and every day added more and more salt, till
the water was as thick as gruel, and the fish could hardly wag their
tails in it. Then he threw in whole peppercorns, half a dozen pounds at
a time, till there was enough. Then he began to dilute with vinegar,
until his pickle was complete. The fish did not half like it at first;
but habit is everything, and when he showed me his tank, they were
swimming about as merry as a shoal of dace; he fed them with fennel,
chopped small, and black peppercorns. `Come, doctor,' says I, `I trust
no man upon tick; if I don't taste, I won't believe my own eyes, though
_I can_ believe my _tongue_.'" (We looked at each other). "`That you
shall do in a minute,' says he; so he whipped one of them out with a
landing-net; and when I stuck my knife into him, the pickle ran out of
his body like wine out of a claret bottle, and I ate at least two pounds
of the rascal, while he flapped his tail in my face. I never tasted
such salmon as that. Worth your while to go to Scotland, if its only
for the sake of eating, live pickled salmon. I'll give you a letter,
any of you, to my friend. He'll be damned glad to see you; and then you
may convince yourselves. Take my word for it, if once you eat salmon
that way, you will never eat it any other."

We all said we thought that very likely.

The champagne corks flew as fast and as loud as his shells at Acre; but
we were particularly reserved, depending entirely on his tongue for our
amusement; and, finding the breeze of conversation beginning to freshen,
I artfully turned the subject to Egypt, by asking one of my friends to
demolish a pyramid of jelly, which stood before him, and to send some of
it to the captain.

This was enough: he began with Egypt, and went