of angling for salmon
had brought us to Scandinavia; and up to the present moment we had not
seen the scaly snout of a single fish. We murmured not; but could not
resist the doubt, that the existence of salmon in Northern Europe was a
reality; nor could we conceal from ourselves the absurd light in which
we appeared to the simple people who each day, with mute astonishment,
beheld us, late and early, in storm and calm, deliberately and
untiringly flog with a long line of cat-gut their legendary streams, in
the vain hope of capturing a creature not to be caught in them; and
which effort on our part was, in their opinion, a striking proof of the
aberration of human intelligence.

We had now travelled over a space of more than a thousand miles, and
were as far removed from the object of which we came in pursuit, as the
first hour when we left Greenwich; and yet our diligence had been
exemplary, our inquiries most minute, and our measures, in carrying out
the information we received, most prompt.

R---- and P---- went on board perfectly disgusted, and ready to start on
the morrow for Kongsbacka, or Gottenborg, or anywhere else. I
sympathised with their disappointment, for the desire to catch salmon
had amounted to a passion; and I do not think any other feeling, even of
love or hatred, sat more paramount in their breasts; and when I called
to mind how,

"Patiens pulveris atque solis,"

each of them had endured all inconveniences without any remuneration, I
could not help thinking of those truthful lines of Anacreon, which he
applied, to be sure, to softer emotions of the heart than those now
depressing the hilarity of my companions, but the spirit of which was,
nevertheless, identified with the tone of their minds:----

"[Greek: Chalepon to me philesai,
Chalepon de kai philesai,
Chalepotaton de panton,
Apotynchanein philounta.]"

The period when I left school is gone so far with the past, that I can
no longer bring back its lore, and, taking up my lexicon, translate;
but, if some old Etonian will receive the signification of these four
lines as I do, and allow their collective meaning to huddle in one
confused lump round the base of some shattered classic column, and there
remain, I shall feel thankful for the task I am spared in cracking each
word into English.

The coast of Falkenborg is the most uninteresting I have yet seen; and,
wherever I turn, the same low shore, with its solitary lighthouse, and
thou