a few remarks on the art
of angling, felt the fatigue of rising at two in the morning, and fell
fast asleep. I possessed the wakefulness of a second Cerberus, and
allowed not Morpheus to approach my eyelids; but loitering, up and down,
under the shady boughs of the trees, listened to the sweet silvery
rippling of the river, as it crept between the rocks, or bubbled over
its shingly bed. Overpowered at last by the fury of the vertical sun, I
entered the tent that had been formed by raising the gig's sail on the
four oars.

R---- and P---- were still slumbering, and I was lying under the tent,
on the ground, reading the Adventures of Peregrine Pickle. The sailors
who had formed the boat's crew were sauntering about along the banks of
the river; and the cockswain, who generally on such excursions as the
present performed the part of cook, was seated on a piece of rock which
projected into the bubbling stream, busily occupied in the preparation
of dinner. Whistling, and humming, by fits, one of the sea-songs of his
country, he wore the time away while peeling some potatoes, which, one
by one, as his large knife, slung from his belt by a piece of yarn,
deprived of their jackets, he threw into an iron pot, having rinsed them
previously in the flowing river. Within his sight, lay, on a white
towel, a leg of lamb, bewitchingly sprinkled with salt, all prepared to
be cooked, but only waiting for the potatoes to bear it company to the
fire. Absorbed in my book, I paid little attention to what was passing
around me, except by an occasional glance, until I heard a loud, shrill
scream, and then a louder rustling of feathers, as if this was the noon
of the last day, and Gabriel having blown his trumpet without my hearing
it, had actually reached the earth. I jumped up, and running out of the
tent, saw the cockswain standing like a nautical statue, motionless,
gazing upwards, and with a stick grasped firmly in his hand. Following
his example, I turned my eyes reverentially to the skies, and
distinguished, from the blaze of day, a most lusty eagle, making the
best of his way towards the residence of Jove with the leg of lamb in
his beak; and, as if conscious of the superiority his position had given
him over us, waving the white towel, grasped with his talons, hither and
thither in the air, like a flag moved exultingly by conquerors after
victory.

"It's gone, sir," said the sailor, lowering the uplifted club, "and,
blow me, if I ev