The Fishing of Rivers with the Wet Fly 109 



iron, but never steeZ-headed nails. Steel 

 slips terribly on the face of a smooth stone, 

 and is to be avoided. Square - headed 

 nails, set a little apart, give a better grip 

 than do round-headed hobnails called 

 " tackets " in Scotland. 



Once I very nearly came to utter grief 

 while wading Loch Griam, in Sutherland- 

 shire. I had about 15 Ibs. of trout in my 

 creel (18 Ibs. gross weight) at the time. 

 A tempest had caused the water on the 

 lee shore, where I was wading (keen as 

 mustard and rather recklessly), to become 

 thick and peaty. The crisis came, as I 

 stepped forward quickly, to cast my flies, 

 during a momentary lull, into the teeth 

 of the wind. I had stepped up to the 

 waist over a hidden danger a bank of 

 gravel and sand, with a slope only just 

 sufficient to permit me to set my feet edge- 

 ways thereon, which saved me. After this 

 and other experiences of the kind, I invented 

 my safety buckle, which I have found most 

 valuable, as the fisherman can be relieved 

 of his creel in a second, and this too without 

 fatigue. 



The real poetry of fly-fishing comes in 

 when the rivers are of normal volume and 

 quite clear, and in quite large rivers, like 



