A FIRST SPRINGER AND SOME OTHERS 79 



will probably get a dozen kelts to one springer, and the 

 fish, therefore, is in the category of the important. By 

 the river report of last Saturday I see that Lord North- 

 cliffe (who will always be Alfred Harmsworth to the 

 republic of the pen, and who always has been a keen 

 and travelled angler) has been rewarded with four 

 salmon, and congratulate while I envy him. In truth, 

 it was this statement in the report that forced me to 

 forget this miserable weather by catching my first 

 springer over again as fondly remembered. 



The seeker for the springer has not a little call upon 

 endurance, not the least being in the uncertainty of the 

 conditions. How well I know what it means on those 

 beats above Perth when in sleet and gale the river is 

 15 ft. above the normal, flooding the Inch levels at the 

 beginning of the season, as happened in the early days 

 of this season. In my case the uncertainty was so felt 

 and protracted before starting on my journey. You 

 can understand probably that the feeling of the man 

 who is ready for the summons, yet who is put off by 

 telegrams and letters day after day, gets at last beyond 

 longing ; it works up into a sort of innocent fury. An 

 old angler, hampered for many a season, and finding 

 freedom at last, consoles himself with the reflection 

 that passion, too much intenseness about such a matter, 

 will trouble his philosophy never more. Yet one 

 morning he is swept off his feet. A kindly friend has 

 days of salmon fishing for him ; fish have run up and 

 are plentiful ; he need but wait the signal, and go. 

 What, in all reasonable conscience, could be nicer ? 

 But how true it is that there is nothing in life so cer- 

 tain as its uncertainty ! Day succeeds day in the 

 customary fashion, and the expected summons cometh 

 not. Those days on fine beats that were set apart for 

 you pass in flood ; you tick them off as materials for 



