sportsman hires a boat, and angles in the centre
of the stream, which is generally interrupted by large stones, or pieces
of rock, in the eddy of which the salmon delight to sport.

P---- was the first to get his rod together, and selecting a particular
fly that he had considered as "a certain killer," jumped into his pram.
The men who row these prams are generally Norwegians, born on the banks
of the river, and knowing pretty well under what rocks, or in what eddy,
the salmon abound. The Norwegian who rowed P----'s pram was a fine
young fellow, but as unable to understand the English language as he was
athletic. R---- and P---- divided the river in two parts, so that
neither sportsman should interfere with the amusement of the other.
P---- took the upper part of the stream, and R---- the lower; or, in
other words, or other ideas, P---- was the wolf who came to drink of the
limpid tide, and R---- was the lamb who had to put up with the muddy
water.

Broiling my back in the rising sun, I took my seat on a high rock from
which I had a commanding view of both my friends, and could note the
praiseworthy tact and labour with which they angled. Time flew on; a
quarter of an hour elapsed, and then another quarter; and to these
thirty minutes, twice thirty more were added, when the heat at my back
was relieved by the furious and rapid clicking of P----'s reel. I
started from my seat, and lo! P----'s rod had assumed quite a new
appearance; for instead of its taper, arrowy form, it looked more like a
note of interrogation, and seemed to ask as loudly and plainly as it
could,

"What in heavens, master, has hold of my other end?"

P----, too, no longer retained that upright, soldierly attitude for
which I had always admired him, but leaned so much backwards, that,
should the good rod, I thought, give way, nothing on earth can save him
from falling on the hinder part of his head. R---- wound up his line, and
sat down in his pram to watch P----.

It is the custom, the instant the salmon takes the fly, for the rower to
pull towards the shore with as much celerity and judgment as possible,
neither to drive the boat too swiftly through the water, or loiter too
slowly, both extremes endangering the chance of capturing your salmon.
That part of the stream where P---- fished, was about forty yards below
a rapid, and, indeed, ran with the current of a sluice; and the reader
may imagine, that, a very little impetus given to the pram ag