TEOUT AND SALMON FISHING. 367 



your landing net to feel and guide your steps, on no account 

 permitting the excitement of hooking a large fish to make 

 you lose your head. 



A couple of hundred yards beneath the dam is a splendid 

 pool, difficult to fish and difficult of access, but a trial will 

 be amply rewarded. Scarcely in the memory of a long 

 fishing career have we ever enjoyed such a couple of hours' 

 sport as fell to our luck the first time we wetted a line 

 upon its well-stocked surface. On the first cast not one but 

 half a dozen of the spotted beauties rushed to the surface, 

 so that we were ultimately compelled to reduce the number 

 of flies we were using to a solitary specimen. For two 

 hours we confined ourselves to this pool, with the simple 

 change of altering situation or cast, and even then only 

 desisted, not from want of fish but for fear the constant 

 strain would wear out the rod. On this occasion the results 

 were nearly four dozen, and noue under half a pound, 

 many reaching as high as three and even three and a half. 

 The guide, whom I have previously mentioned, was my 

 companion, and most satisfactorily he did his work, 

 although on many occasions he was compelled to wade up 

 to his middle ; in fact, I never met a more obliging person, 

 or one more fearless in entering water, or better skilled in 

 handling a landing net. 



Another day's sport I will quote more minutely, as 

 another part of the river was the scene of operations. 

 Within an hour and a half I had killed eleven fish, 

 averaging two and a quarter pounds, when suddenly they 

 stopped rising, and all my skill was wasted, for I could 

 not raise a fin. This striking peculiarity in both trout and 



