i6o DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



none of them and yet be kelt all over to those who 

 have once seen clean and unclean fish side by side. 

 What the Captain had done and heard caused him 

 to have such a mighty awe of bringing home another 

 kelt that when, on the following day, he hooked a 

 salmon of thirty pounds, neither its perfect shape, 

 nor its great strength in a fifty-minutes struggle 

 dispelled his fear. So great did the doubt remain 



that his soldier comrade. Colonel B , who was 



fishing on the other side, was asked his opinion; but 

 he could not give one from such a distance as separated 

 them; so they met at the bridge, where they held an 

 inquest and, being still undecided, they came to me. 

 I was wading, and unconscious of onlookers other 

 than my gillie, when he called, 'You are wanted, sir,' 

 and, when I turned, I saw the Colonel, the Captain, 

 and their two giUies, all in fear that the splendid 

 fresh-run fish was nothing but a kelt. 



Peter's Pool is the first to answer to a southern 

 wind, and, luckily for me, it was in my beat the day 

 the change came. Ihe salmon had cesLsed their leaping, 

 and were no doubt as joyful and as full of knowiedge 

 of the change as we who viewed the scudding clouds 

 and felt the faUing rain. 



'Waders, John; now's our chance for fish.' 

 The smallest minnow and the finest line were soon 

 across the stream, and it w^as grudgingly, and with 

 as little disturbance as I could to the pebbly bottom, 

 that I travelled down to deeper parts, as there were 

 only a few yards in which I had hopes of fish. The 

 water had nearly reached the tops of my waders when 

 a tug came, which, with my answering strike and the 

 moving, of a stone, almost overbalanced me and, to 

 save myself; I scrambled forward into deeper water 

 and, doing so, filled my waders; but I got the fish. 

 John was smiling as he stitched its mouth — they 

 stiffen better so — perhaps at the thought of going 

 through the village with it on his back. When he has 



