f onward, he was
soon standing level with the side of the fall, gazing intently at the
watery curve and right into the pool where the water foamed and plunged
down, rose a few yards away, and then set in a regular stream round and
round the amphitheatre, a portion flowing out between two huge
buttresses of granite, and then hurrying downstream.

Nic was about fifteen feet above the surface of the chaos of water, and
a little above the head of the pool; while below him were blocks of
stone, dripping bushes, and grasses, and then an easy descent to where
he might have stood dry-shod and gazed beneath the curve of the falling
water, as he had stood scores of times before.

But his attention was fixed upon the curve, and as he watched he saw
something silvery flash out of the brown water and fall back into the
pool where the foam was thickest.

Again he saw it, and this time it disappeared without falling back. For
the salmon, fresh from the sea, were leaping at the fall to gain the
upper waters of the river.

It was a romantic scene, and Nic stood watching for some minutes,
breathing the moist air, while the spray began to gather upon his
garments, and the deep musical boom reverberated from the rocky sides of
the chasm.

It was a grand day for the fish, and he was thinking that there would be
plenty of them right up the river for miles, for again and again he saw
salmon flash into sight as, by one tremendous spring and beat of their
tails, they made their great effort to pass the obstacle in their way.

"Plenty for every one," he said to himself; "and plenty left for us," he
added, as he saw other fish fail and drop back into the foam-covered
amber and black water, to sail round with the stream, and in all
probability--for their actions could not be seen--rest from their
tremendous effort, and try again.

All at once, after Nic had been watching for some minutes without seeing
sign of a fish, there was a flash close in to where he stood, and a
large salmon shot up, reached the top of the fall, and would have passed
on, but fortune was against it. For a moment it rested on the edge, and
its broad tail and part of its body glistened as a powerful stroke was
made with the broad caudal fin.

But it was in the air, not in the water; and the next moment the great
fish was falling, when, quick as its own spring up, there was a sudden
movement from behind one of the great stones at the foot of the fall
just below wher