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in easier water, close in to the side. At tlie end of the first 

 fifty yards a big boulder jutted out, from behind this 

 came a spanking- rise, and I was fast in an Usk salmon. It 

 is not easy to get ashore under such conditions, with a fight- 

 ing fish and a heavy press of rushing water to contend 

 with. But I managed to get on dry land eventually, and 

 the fish came to gaff without mishap — a pretty little clean 

 salmon of seven or eight pounds. Before resuming opera- 

 tions, we again discussed the locality of that dangerous 

 shelf of rock, and my attendant was emphatic in his state- 

 ment that it was immediately opposite the bush. Fishing the 

 water carefully down to within about thirty feet of the bush, 

 I went one step further, and stepped into space ! In an in- 

 stant I was in a hole fifteen feet deep, and being swept down 

 by the rushing waters. Fortunately I can swim like a 

 duck — thanks to my sailor experiences — and I never lost 

 my head for a moment. Holding my rod in the left hand, 

 I struck out strongly for the shore, and soon touched bottom 

 some fifty or sixty yards lower down. My attendant was 

 busily engaged in a vain attempt to light his pipe, and had 

 not seen what had happened to me. What I said to him 

 is immaterial, but it was something very plain and very 

 emphatic. He quietly remarked, " "Well, you are only a 

 bit wet ; but a parson was drowned in that hole not long 

 ago " ! I have heard men say that it is unsafe to strap your 

 waders round your chest, and that it is much better to have 

 your waders full of water than to have them inflated like a 

 balloon. After this experience I believe in the strap. I 

 also believe that I should have shared the fate of that parson 

 had my long waders filled with water. 



"Wringing out my wet garments, I put them on again, and 

 returned to the fishing. The fly was taken almost imme- 

 diatel}', and a second salmon was quickly added to our 

 score — a better one this time. We went back to the head 

 of our length of water, and foregathered with two men fish- 

 ing above us. They had five salmon between them, running 

 from 51b. to 161b. apiece. I did not quite equalise their 

 score before the day was out, but I only fell one short, and 

 but for my ducking believe I should have beaten them. 



