AN AGITATING MOMENT 111 



At last we started. We had about two or three 

 miles to go to the upper cast, called the Carry-wheel. 1 

 As I neared it, and saw the sweep of the gallant 

 river, I stepped out in eagerness till I came to the 

 top of a steep covered with wood, gorse, and broom ; 

 then I dashed down the rocks, and found myself on 

 the channel, with the rush of a glorious salmon cast 

 before me. Think of this, ye gudgeon fishers ! 

 The rod was put together in haste, — out came the 

 London book ; and whilst I selected that misnomer, 

 a metropolitan salmon fly, a huge fish sprang out 

 of the water before me, bright and lusty. What a 

 challenge ! In my agitation the flies got entangled ; 

 — confusion worse confounded beset me. The hooks 

 stuck into my quivering fingers, and then a puff of 

 wind scattered them abroad in various directions. 

 To crown all, Walter kept me in a perspiration by 

 making, as if he would throw for the fish, which, 

 by anticipation, I considered as my property. At 

 length I collected my senses, and my flies also ; and 

 it is a wonder that I did so, as the said fish continued 

 his gambols, and repeatedly claimed my attention. 



Now then for it. The cast being narrow at the 

 throat, I began with a short line, which I kept 

 lengthening as it got wider ; for so it became me. 

 I came now, step by step, to the spot where I 

 expected to do for the fish. Excited as I was, I 

 flung with spirit ; but the fly alighted not upon the 

 wave ; far from it ; it attached itself most perfectly 

 to a birch-tree in my rear, and crack went my top- 



1 " Wheel," or " wiel," rather, is a common term in Lowland Scots 

 for a salmon pool, and, like English " well," a spring is a derivative 

 of the Anglo-Saxon weallan, to well or boil up. — Ed. 



