REMINTS(yENCES OF THE LEWS. l03 



great fun. You hooked a springy little gentle- 

 man, who jumped on the opposite bank. If 

 you were by yourself, and could not clear the 

 river, you had nothing for it but to pull your 

 fish back into the water, fight him there, and 

 bring him out on your own side, if you could. 

 Or, perhaps, when hooked, Salmo rushed up 

 one of these narrows, and in following him you 

 were brought up by a cross ditch, filled to the 

 bank with the overflow, and you had to stand 

 snubbing and turning him, which, with light 

 tackle and small flies, is not always so easily 

 done. In the other branch of the Blackwater 

 I remember killing but one grilse, and that in 

 a small pool, or rather hole, where we hunted 

 him about, and caught him with a landing net. 

 Both Loch Dismal and New Loch held fish, 

 particularly towards the end of the season ; but 

 I never found the salmon there, or in any loch 

 save the Gremsta Loch and Loch Valtos, rise 

 well to a fly. I believe the country people kill 

 a good man}^ with a worm, and when the water 

 is deep enough they will run at a minnow. 

 But, though there can be no doubt that spinning 

 a minnow as it should be spun, and fishing a 

 worm well under water, as Tom Stoddard does 

 at Kelso, are very high angling accomplish- 

 ments, perhaps higher than throwing a fly, I 



