"I knew the sea. I knew the secret caves where ocean roars to ocean; the
floods that are icy cold, from which the nose of a salmon leaps back as
at a sting; and the warm streams in which we rocked and dozed and were
carried forward without motion. I swam on the outermost rim of the great
world, where nothing was but the sea and the sky and the salmon; where
even the wind was silent, and the water was clear as clean grey rock.

"And then, far away in the sea, I remembered Ulster, and there came on
me an instant, uncontrollable anguish to be there. I turned, and through
days and nights I swam tirelessly, jubilantly; with terror wakening in
me, too, and a whisper through my being that I must reach Ireland or
die.

"I fought my way to Ulster from the sea.

"Ah, how that end of the journey was hard! A sickness was racking in
every one of my bones, a languor and weariness creeping through my every
fibre and muscle. The waves held me back and held me back; the soft
waters seemed to have grown hard; and it was as though I were urging
through a rock as I strained towards Ulster from the sea.

"So tired I was! I could have loosened my frame and been swept away;
I could have slept and been drifted and wafted away; swinging on
grey-green billows that had turned from the land and were heaving and
mounting and surging to the far blue water.

"Only the unconquerable heart of the salmon could brave that end of
toil. The sound of the rivers of Ireland racing down to the sea came to
me in the last numb effort: the love of Ireland bore me up: the gods of
the rivers trod to me in the white-curled breakers, so that I left
the sea at long, long last; and I lay in sweet water in the curve of a
crannied rock, exhausted, three parts dead, triumphant."

CHAPTER X

"Delight and strength came to me again, and now I explored all the
inland ways, the great lakes of Ireland, and her swift brown rivers.

"What a joy to lie under an inch of water basking in the sun, or beneath
a shady ledge to watch the small creatures that speed like lightning on
the rippling top. I saw the dragon-flies flash and dart and turn, with
a poise, with a speed that no other winged thing knows: I saw the hawk
hover and stare and swoop: he fell like a falling stone, but he could
not catch the king of the salmon: I saw the cold-eyed cat stretching
along a bough level with the water, eager to hook and lift the creatures
of the river. And I saw men.

"They saw m