The Fishing of Rivers with the Wet Fly 1 29 



as mustard," or "fair daft." Add to this, 

 energetic action, not a single moment 

 wasted, while the trout were " on the job." 

 Such things have as much to do with it as 

 mere skill. 



The days which cling to my memory 

 now, are some during which I have had all 

 my work cut out, and have only just 

 managed to get a fairly good basket of 

 trout sometimes getting only a few large 

 and shy trout. Anything out of the common, 

 also, seems to remain in my memory, when 

 the mere catching of many trout is prac- 

 tically forgotten. I will indicate the kind 

 of thing I mean by " anything unusual," 

 etc. And I am thankful to add that I can 

 write freely about this, as it did not occur 

 to myself, but to a better man. Many 

 years ago I told the tale in the pages of the 

 Fishing Gazette. 



Many interesting letters followed, all of 

 which are still preserved by me, in a scrap- 

 book of rather large dimensions, much of 

 it from my own pen. My old preceptor, 

 " Mark Aitken," " fisherman " to the (then) 

 Marquis of Lothian, was one of the very 

 finest wet-fly experts I ever saw, and an 

 absolutely reliable man. One day he was 

 particularly anxious to get a good basket 



