SALMON ANGUNO IN mSLAND. 231 



the brook at T3rrena to a condition midway between a mountain rill 

 and a mountain road, brought the Beltra into excellent tune, so we 

 will suppose permission asked ; leave obtained ; the great melancholy 

 house left behind ; and Willie and his master padding along the road 

 leading to the bridge; for here, as elsewhere in this kindly land, 

 leave is seldom refused, unless the water should chance to be specially 

 leased for the rod. Compared with Tyrena, where, from the source 

 to the sea, I cannot recall a single bush higher than the bog myrtle, 

 the Beltra may, in its lower pools, be called woody. Here and there 

 a group of ash trees cast a shade over the water, and so far repre- 

 sented timber as to make the angler cautious how he propelled his 

 line. Halting on the bridge we got our machinery into working 

 order and commenced operations. The water was all that could be 

 desired, but the day was by no means favourable ; there was too 

 much sun and too little wind. Nor were the streams on the Beltra 

 of sufficient volume to make an angler independent of calms and 

 cloudless skies. The work of the previous week had been hard, and 

 the sport admirable ; now I was indisposed for exertion, and 

 unreasonable in my expectations. The fact was, experience showed 

 circumstances were against me, and I was too fagged to fight the 

 battle with that spirit and determination which could alone win the 

 day against adverse fortune. Then, again, many of the pools pos- 

 sessed a quiet beauty that required to be sketched, and several flowers 

 presented themselves, which needed dissection and examination under 

 the lens. There was also another impediment to exertion in the 

 shape of a solitary robin, who, unquestionably banished from the 

 company of his fellows for malpractices, took a great fancy to me, 

 and fluttered on from spray to spray as I moved lazily forwards. 

 There never was so loquacious a bird. Did I rest for a moment, he 

 was sure to open his grief ; nor was he satisfied with plain prose, for 

 he put his wrongs into poetry, and chanted the lay so soothingly, 

 that I could not choose but listen. Later in the day this lazy, dreamy, 

 disposition left me ; some of the old energy returned, and, though lost 

 time could not be recalled, I thought myself rewarded to the full of my 

 deservings by the possession of ten white and a few small brown trout. 



