124 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED 



attempt to match it, therefore, is out of the question. 

 You may easily satisfy yourself of the superiority 

 of white over dyed gut, in ordinary cases, by 

 remarking the appearance of both when placed 

 in a tumbler of pure water. 



Whatever you do, have nothing to say to multi- 

 plying reels : they are apt to betray you in the hour 

 of trial. 



My first discovery of their insufficiency for heavy 

 fish created some embarrassment at the time. I 

 had a pet multiplier, which ran beautifully, and 

 which I had long used for trout fishing. As it was 

 sufficiently large to contain a salmon line, I 

 employed it for that purpose also, till it began to 

 get rickety with the more heavy work. One day, 

 the water being fallen in, and the morning also 

 being sunny, so as to exclude the expectation of 

 killing a salmon, I put some trout tackle at the end 

 of my line, which was on the said reel, and began 

 trouting in Bolside- water. In the course of the 

 day a cloud passed before the sun ; and at the same 

 time, as is usually the case, a slight breeze arose 

 and ruffled the surface of the water. I hastened to 

 change my tackle, and substituted a small salmon 

 fly in place of the trout ones : small, because, as I 

 have said, the water was quite fallen in. Though 

 many years have passed over my head since that 

 time, I remember this fly well. His wings were of 

 the clear brown feather from the bittern ; his body 

 of black wool, with a hackle of the same colour ; 

 and his tail of a very pronounced yellow, being 

 made of the feather of a golden pheasant ; red he 

 was in the head, and altogether of a very commend- 



