68 MARVELS OF FISH LIFE 



which will be given later, and the other a thirty-pound 

 kelt, taken on the Dee. 



There had been a spate, and the river was too full 

 for successful fishing. After a tiring day, I was fishing 

 out the last pool on the water, and as my fly swept 

 round to within two feet of the bank, the line suddenly 

 appeared to be checked. So near the bank, I thought 

 the fly must have caught on a stone, but when I raised 

 the point of the rod, to my utter surprise the line 

 screeched out off the reel into mid-stream, and what 

 appeared to be a mountain of silver leapt into the air. 

 I rapidly scrambled up the steep slope behind, and there 

 was the fish, some eighty yards away, ploughing through 

 the raging current like a motor-boat, with the line 

 whistling in the gale. Not even a well-mended kelt can 

 stand a strain of this sort for long, and suddenly she 

 turned tail and shot down-stream. Now, tearing after 

 her, twice I fell on the slippery bank, and on one of 

 these occasions the gillie saved the situation by quickly 

 snatching up the rod, and following the fish until I was 

 able to catch him up. The fish was a very demon, and 

 at first it appeared as if her destination would be nothing 

 short of Aberdeen, some twelve miles down the river ! 

 when suddenly she switched off into slack water just 

 at the head of a raging rapid, where it would have been 

 impossible to follow. It was not long now before we 

 had her well in hand, and not till then did I suspect 

 that it was a kelt, though, of course, my knowing gillie 

 knew it all the time 1 The fish had to be brought to a 



