1 82 THE SALMON 



Nothing is more certain than that you will not catch 

 fish unless you try ; hut there are scarcely any con- 

 ditions, except a really ' waxing' water after the first half- 

 hour of the flood, under which an exceptional success 

 has not occurred to baffle expectation and encourage 

 perseverance. But I am precluded by the rules of 

 the argument from catching a salmon on the present 

 occasion ; I hardly know whether I am justified in 

 seeing one, but I cannot help it. Here, as I pass the 

 Herd-boy's pool, the water is like glass and I can see 

 ten or a dozen shadowy forms flitting like ghosts over 

 the bottom. One or two of them are of exceptional 

 size, and I feel a certain amount of complacency at 

 resisting the temptation to acquire one by illegitimate 

 means. They will certainly not rise to-day ; but it 

 would not be beyond the resources of science for an 

 unconscientious man to get hold of one. So I pass 

 on. merely noting that the bottom has altered con- 

 siderably since I fished it twelve months ago. There 

 is hardly a foot of water where I rose the i4-pounder, 

 and what was a shallow a little lower down has 

 deepened and washed out into a promising hole. I 

 shall not forget this when this part of the river is next 

 in order, and fill my mental note-book with similar 

 ground plans of the various pools as |I pass down the 

 river. Here and there the stream runs fairly strong, 



