188 WANDERINGS AND MEMORIES 



other I grasped the rod, bent nearly double, and 

 practically all the line gone. I was up to my neck 

 in the river, and had even made some way down the 

 river by quickly shifting my right hand from root 

 to root. The trees were thickly laced overhead, 

 and my rod was on a level with the water to keep 

 my movements free, but the terrific strain on the 

 line was almost over. It could not have lasted 

 another minute, when I heard a sound behind me, 

 and looking up, saw Haggart and Captain Stockwell 

 with outstretched hands waiting to catch me as the 

 boat swept down. In another moment, dripping 

 but triumphant, I found myself on the floor of the 

 boat with the rod still bent double in my left hand, 

 and, best of all, the fish still " on." 



" Put me on the Delvine bank and I'll soon kill 

 him now," I said, for I felt that if ever a salmon 

 was well hooked that one was. A few sharp strokes 

 and we were there, and as I jumped ashore the 

 fish, now scared, made off on the longest run I have 

 ever seen a salmon make. He went off at full speed 

 too, and I ran along the shingle for at least four 

 hundred yards without a single halt. This was 

 something like salmon fishing, and I fondly imagined 

 that such a run would exhaust him, and the rest 

 would be easy. Not a bit of it. The boat came up 

 ready to be of assistance, and the men were in time 

 to take a rest whilst the fish sulked for a few minutes, 

 then off he went again at a full run for another 

 five or six hundred yards before halting. We were 

 now close to the end of the Delvine beach, and as 

 I did not wish to be caught napping again with 

 trees or obstacles to block the passage, I got into the 

 boat and crossed to the west bank on Meiklour, 



