CH. IX.] OCCASIONAL FLY-FISHING. 121 



obliged to employ greater force than I should 

 otherwise have done, in order to try to turn his 

 head away from it. At first I thought I should 

 have succeeded, but unfortunately the hold gave, 

 and I had the mortification of seeing him execute 

 a preliminary flourish of derision, throwing him- 

 self out of the water, and exhibiting his full size, 

 that of at least a twelve-pounder, as he surged 

 oif to look for quieter quarters. It is somewhat 

 remarkable, that this fish, as my friend and J. 

 Cameron both positively declared, was not the 

 Salmon which had shewn himself just before, but 

 a Salmo ferox. My own sight is not sufficiently 

 good to enable me to express a decided opinion, 

 but my impression is that they were right, and that 

 the fish was a different one, being larger, and 

 darker-coloured. Besides the spinning-rod, I al- 

 ways had a fly-rod at hand in the boat, with 

 which I used to catch a good number of brown 

 Trout in the runs at odd times. Just above Loch 

 Kingie, for instance, I remember catching in a 

 very short time about three dozen, one of them 

 being two pounds and a quarter, a very bonnie 

 fish. The greater part of these I caught just at 

 the head of Loch Kingie, wading in with only a 

 shirt on, tucked up pretty high, when, what with 



