nowy scalps thrust to Heaven,
seemed to claim priority of creation and rule with patriarchal dominion
over the lesser hills. The main river ran along the eastern quarter of
the island, leaping and flowing over and under the rocky ledges of a
mountain, and its stream, sometimes expansive, then contracted, hurried
down a bed of scanty depth.

As the sole pursuit of my two companions was the circumvention and death
of numberless salmon, the same evening on which we arrived a start was
made for the salmon pools on the other side of the island. In the course
of an hour the pools were reached, and having gone through the usual
forms, such as solicitation for permission to fish, and the hire of two
prams, R---- and P---- began their accustomed labour. Taking, as
customary, my position on some elevated spot, whence a good range of all
my two friends' operations might be had, I strove to pass away the time
by staking bets with myself whether one fish could be caught in thirty
casts, or whether, on an average, twice as many minutes would elapse
without such a result. My left hand generally took the odds, and I
calculated that it won four times out of five.

The sun had set for many hours, but it was light as noon. Wearied with
fruitless watching, I lay down on the grass. Stretched at full length on
my back, and having read in astronomical works that, looking upwards
from a dark hole dug in the earth, the stars might be seen shining at
mid-day, I covered my face with my cap, and peered upwards at the sky
through a small hole in the crown. But my philosophy was suddenly
interrupted by the solution of another remarkable fact, and of more
personal moment than the scintillation of the stars, by finding I had
put my head in an ant's nest. I started to my feet, affirming that I
had never been so unwary before. But I am a believer in predestination,
and know that this accident could no more fail of occurrence, than that
from my cradle, in harmony of order, it should fail being traced, link
by link, to the instant at which it came upon me. See, now, its
consequences. No sooner had a score of angry ants been brushed from my
hair, in which their irritability had entangled them, than I was
gratified with the sight of a herculean salmon that rose completely out
of the water, and sprung, like a ravenous cat, at P----'s fly, which he
had just withdrawn from the water, intending to change it for another of
a brighter colour. The fish leapt abou