RUNNING A LARGE SALMON. 63 



upon his jaws, I at last in despair gave him such a tug that 

 he was dislodged from his resting-place in spite of himself. 

 Off he went, sometimes across the stream, with nearly the 

 whole of my line out, the next moment right under my feet in 

 the deep pool under the rock on which I was standing, and from 

 which it was not easy to move. There I could see him 

 shaking his head and trying to rub the hook out against the 

 gravel : at another time he would take a sudden dart to the 

 right and left, and again shake his head like a dog worrying 

 a rat : but knowing that he was well hooked, and indeed not 

 caring much whether I lost him or not, I kept so tight a 

 rein on him as prevented his either slacking the line or 

 rubbing off the hook, small as it was. Suddenly a new idea 

 seemed to seize him, and shooting straight upwards, he 

 leaped several times out of the water immediately below me. 

 But this would not do ; so finding that he could not get rid 

 of the hook, he again rushed across the river, making the 

 handle of the reel spin at a railway pace. He then made 

 down the stream as fast as he could. I had scarcely any 

 line left on my reel, so had to take a leap off the rock and 

 follow him along the bank of the river. Presently we came 

 to a rather rapid but not high fall, full of broken stones, and 

 altogether a place where he would be sure to break my line 

 if he once got into it, which he seemed determined to do, so 

 here I halted and made a stand against all his pulling. The 

 fish began to feel beat, and ran in again almost under my feet. 



Not succeeding in slacking the line, he again rushed right 

 across and took the fall, in spite of all 1 could do to prevent 

 him. He did not cut my line as I expected, but it gave way 

 close to the end, within a few inches of the reel, and before 

 I could catch hold of it, I had the pleasure of seeing the 

 line floating away, but gradually sinking as the fish carried 

 it off towards the wider pools near the sea. Dunbar jumped 

 gallantly into the water, but was too late to catch it, so the 

 salmon went off with about forty yards of line and a couple 

 of sea-trout flies hanging to his mouth. I scarcely knew 

 whether to be angry or amused, but considering that the 

 former would be of no use, and perhaps spoil my appetite 

 for breakfast, I undid my rod, got into the boat, and drove 

 off to Scowrie to breakfast, with a philosophy that rather 

 astonished my companion. 



Havhig called on Mr. M'lvor, the manager of this part of 

 Sutherland, that gentleman offered me his boat and other 



