86 LINES IN PLEASANT PLACES 



out. My waterproof bag was to the human eye im- 

 pervious ; but there was one unnoticed opening not 

 an inch long by half an inch wide, and the flakes dis- 

 covered it at once. There was a japanned metal fly 

 box upon which they might have had their will, but 

 that was not sufficient ; they fixed upon the soft 

 leather wallet with the precious gut casts, and made a 

 much too successful attack upon the paper packet of 

 sandwiches. At the waterside I had looked at my 

 companions, expecting them to cry off ; as I said 

 before, however, this almost blinding snow was merely 

 ordinary business, and I huddled down in my place, 

 thankful that there was no cold wind, no wind at all, 

 to drive the trial home. 



We were soon turning to shore with our first fish, and 

 I was grateful for the stout arm and shoulders of the 

 friendly skipper, who helped me out of the slippery 

 boat, up and up to a standing point on the more slip- 

 pery bank. On this beat the banks were awkward, 

 high, and backed by copse, so that you stood amongst 

 undergrowth, and this was a very different thing from 

 the gentle slopes of clear sward. It came all right, 

 nevertheless ; in life generally the wind undoubtedly 

 very often, if we had but the common gratitude to 

 think so, is tempered to the shorn lamb. Wherefore 

 the old bell wether got through these trifles without a 

 tumble. The incidents that had to be deplored were 

 what the salmon fisherman calls the kelt nuisance. 

 We had it in liberal allowance this day. It would be 

 wearisome to enter into details of the successive hap- 

 penings so great is their family resemblance. 



The first landing was to get rid of a kelt ; and in all, 

 if I may anticipate, we had five of them a small fish 

 of, say, 6 lb., and the rest between 12 Ib. and 15 Ib. 

 Now and again with the kelts you have a positive fight, 



