io6 SHOOTING AND SALMON FISHING 



bank, knocked on the head, and duly buried. We once saw 

 a big kelt so covered with fungus that he was absolutely 

 as white as the paper this is printed on ; but notwithstanding 

 his ailments he made a splendid fight for his life, and took 

 us down several hundred yards of water. This fish we laid 

 hold of by the side of the pectoral fin, as we think a fish 

 thus hooked shows, harder fighting than when fouled in any 

 other part of his body, and as the water was low and bright, 

 his long white form showed every movement, so that from start 

 to finish every detail of the struggle could be seen. On the 

 Crathes water of the Dee we once landed three kelts, which 

 had all been recently gaffed and survived the barbarity ; 

 but in the same water hardly a day passed that we did not 

 see dead kelts lying in the pools, which had mostly been killed 

 by the gaff in the fisheries above. 



We did not see all there were, for a colley dog was in 

 the habit of hunting the banks and pulling out the dead 

 kelts for himself. The dog was fat and sleek to perfection, 

 and would take a regular header when the dead fish was in 

 deep water, and would pull it out from a depth of fully eight 

 feet. He knew his business well, never hunting the streams, 

 but trotting from eddy to eddy he searched the backwaters 

 till he found his breakfast, for which when it lay in a 

 deep place he would often have to make many dives before 

 securing it. 



As to what is good time in which to kill a fish, it is an 

 accepted law by many old hands that a pound a minute is 

 smart work. It may be prolonged by a sulky fish ; but with 

 the rod in good hands, we hold such an event as a long 

 sulk should not be permitted to happen, unless indeed it is 

 impossible to get below the "sulky brute," for on such occasions 

 all fish at once become "brutes." We have never met with 

 one that could resist, for more than a few minutes, the weight 

 of a long line and a steady pull down stream from the middle 

 of the rod. Out from behind the sulking place it must come, 



