was a heave, a roll, a splash, a slap like a pistol-shot; down went Sam, and up went the salmon, spun like a shilling at pitch and toss, six feet into the air.  I leaped in just as he came to the water; but my foot caught between two stones, and the more I pulled the firmer it stuck.  The fish fell in a spot shallower than that from which he had leaped.  Sam saw the chance, and tackled to again:  while I, sitting down in the stream as best I might, held up my torch, and cried fair play, as shoulder to shoulder, throughout and about, up and down, roll and tumble, to it they went, Sam and the salmon.  The Twister was never so twined before.  Yet through crossbuttocks and capsizes innumerable, he still held on; now haled through a pool; now haling up a bank; now heels over head; now head over heels; now head and heels together; doubled up in a corner; but at last stretched fairly on his back, and foaming for rage and disappointment; while the victorious salmon, slapping the stones with his tail, and whirling the spray from his shoulders at every roll, came boring and snoring up the ford.  I tugged and strained to no purpose; he flashed by me with a snort, and slid into the deep water.  Sam now staggered forward with battered bones and peeled elbows, blowing like a grampus, and cursing like nothing but himself.  He extricated me, and we limped home.  Neither rose for a week; for I had a dislocated ankle, and the Twister was troubled with a broken rib.  Poor Sam! he had his brains discovered at last by a poker in a row, and was worm’s meat within three months; yet, ere he died, he had the satisfaction of feasting on his old antagonist, who was man’s meat next morning.  They caught him in a net.  Sam knew him by the twist in his tail.—­Blackwood’s Magazine.

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DIAMONDS IN BRAZIL.

The operation of working for these precious jems is a very simple one.  The alluvial soil (the cascalhao) is dug up from the bed of the river, and removed to a convenient spot on the banks for working.  The process is as follows:—­a rancho is erected about a hundred feet long, and half that distance in width; down the middle of the area is conveyed a canal, covered with earth; on the other side of the area is a flooring of planks, about sixteen feet in length, extending the whole length of the shed, and to which an inclined direction is given; this flooring is divided into troughs, into which is thrown a portion of the cascalhao; the water is then let in, and the earth raked until the water becomes clear; the earthy particles having been washed away, the gravel is raked up to the end of the trough; the largest stones are thrown out, and afterwards the smaller ones, the whole is then examined with great care for diamonds.  When a negro finds one, he claps his hands, stands in an erect posture, holding the diamond between his fore-finger and thumb; it is received by one of the overseers posted on lofty seats, at equal distances,