82 LINES IN PLEASANT PLACES 



and the snow did not appear to be serious. The order 

 of the head boatman was for harling. You have two 

 boatmen on this river, and they had to exert themselves 

 to the utmost to handle her with so heavy a current. 

 It was my first experience of systematic harling. The 

 rods are out at the stern of the boat, and the angler 

 sits on a cross seat facing them, and so placed that he 

 can lay hands upon either in an instant. Three green- 

 heart rods of about 16 ft. are displayed fanwise; that 

 is to say, there is a rod in the middle extended straight 

 forwards, the rods right and left slant outwards, and 

 they are kept in position by a contrivance in the 

 bottom of the boat into which the button of each rod 

 handle fits, and by grooves on the gunwale on either 

 side in which the rod rests and is kept at the proper 

 angle. The butts of these rods are close together in 

 these appointed niches under the seat in the bottom 

 of the boat, and the points are naturally right, left and 

 centre, widely separated. The fourth rod in this boat 

 was a single piece of greenheart, 6 ft. in length, but 

 admirably made, and in thickness was something like 

 the second joint of an ordinary salmon rod. The 

 workmanship was so good that it was a perfect minia- 

 ture. This is the rod that is used for a spinning bait, 

 and is placed at the angler's left hand. It was equipped 

 with a sand eel and the gay little metal cap with flanges, 

 which was invented by Mr. Malloch to facilitate the 

 spinning. The 3 in. flies we used were Jock Scott, 

 Nicholson (a favourite Tay fly), and Black Dog. 



The two men settled to their oars, and I sat before 

 my rods ready to play upon them as occasion arose. 

 We had not been under way five minutes, and I had 

 not finished wondering how the Tom Thumb rod would 

 behave at a crisis, when a sudden test was applied. 

 The winch sang out, and I had the rod up and under 



