CHAP, iv.] PLAYING A SALMON. 131 



the fish in half-an-hour's time. It is a thrilling moment to 

 find that, for the first time, one has hooked a salmon, and the 

 event produces a nervousness that certainly does not tend to 

 the speedy landing of the fish. The first idea, naturally 

 enough, is to haul our scaly friend out of the water by sheer 

 force ; but this plan has speedily to be abandoned, for the fish, 

 making an astonished dash, rushes away up stream in fine 

 style, taking out with it no end of " rope ;" then when once it 

 obtains a bite of its bridle away it goes sulking into some 

 rocky hiding-place. In a brief time it comes out again with 

 renewed vigour, determined as it would seem to try your 

 mettle ; and so it dashes about till you become so fatigued as 

 not to care whether you land it or not. It is impossible to say 

 how long an angler may have to " play" a salmon or a large 

 grilse ; but if it sinks itself to the bottom of a deep pool, it 

 may be a business of hours to get it safe into the landing-net, 

 if the fish be not altogether lost, as in its exertions to escape 

 it may so chafe the line as to cause it to snap and thus regain 

 its liberty ; and during the progress of the battle the angler 

 has certainly to wade, aye and be pulled once or twice 

 through the stream, so that he comes in for a thorough 

 drenching, and may, as many have to do, go home after a 

 hard day's work without being rewarded by the capture of 

 a single fish. 



There is abundance of good salmon-angling to be had in 

 the season in the north of Scotland, where there are always a 

 great variety of fishings to be let at prices suitable for all 

 pockets ; and there is nothing better either for health or 

 recreation than a day on a salmon stream. There are one 

 or two places on Tweed frequented by anglers who take a 

 fishing as a sort of joint-stock company, and who, when they 

 are not angling, talk politics, make poetry, bandy about their 

 polite chaff, and generally "go in" as they say for any amount 

 of amusement. These societies are of course very select, and 



