SALMON ANGLING IN IBBLAND. 153 



features were undyed seal's fur and jungle cock wing, and with 

 these we made a preliminary cast in a state of mind any anointed 

 king " under the canopy " might have envied. 



I know not how it is, but the first day on a new water always 

 seems a success. Perhaps we are more than usually disposed to be 

 pleased, perhaps we work harder ; but however this may be, fortune 

 soon smiled upon us. 



" There he was, you didn't see him," quietly observed my com- 

 panion, who, standing close to my left shoulder, watched the water 

 with his usual gravity, whilst his careless master was gazing upwards 

 at a heavy woolpack, speculating how long it would be ere the soft 

 white mass must cross the sun. 



" What was it ; did you catch a glimpse of him ? " 



" Maybe 'twas a trout, may be a shy fish ; but we'll change the 

 trail anyhow. It wor a very small break, but mortal quick." 



In a moment the second fly was on, and the edge of the cloud just 

 touched the sun as the line dropped lightly on the stream a few yards 

 above the spot where the stranger lay ; the next cast came fairly 

 over him. There was a slight ripple and a delicious feeling of tension 

 my fingers tingle even now with the remembrance a desperate 

 race over the shallow, and such a bound ! oh, who would not be an 

 angler ? 



'' I think he is hooked foul, master, for I seen something black and 

 white, like a jungle cock, a sticking on his side." 



Fair or foul, we were in for a race. Our tackle was as light as it 

 could well be, and the employment of force impossible. Now, 

 galloping along with an active fresh-run grilse at the end of your 

 line, is not quite so easy a condition of things as at first sight might 

 appear, for the rod must constantly be maintained in position, and 

 the eyes of the angler ought to be fixed on two different points at 

 one and the same time, which is not a feat easy of execution unless 

 he squints horribly. If his attention be exclusively directed to the 

 water, he is in momentary danger of a grand downfall, which is safe 

 to eventuate in irremediable ruin. If, on the other hand, he 

 neglects the movements of the fish, and is too careful about his own, 



