CASTING FROM ROCKS AND BOATS 181 



below. It was too late, however, to give the pool the 

 necessary rest and fish it down again ; but we were 

 up early in the morning, to find that our grilse during 

 the night had left the country. 



After a fortnight's miscellaneous sport from The 

 Rocks, during which the grilse proved themselves to 

 be as game as fish could be, frequently running down 

 into the rough water a hundred yards before we could 

 get on terms with them, we began to discover that 

 even in this essentially good place the water was too 

 thin. If the grilse were running at all, they no longer 

 stopped" in the old haunts ; but the neck of the lower 

 pool gave us fish occasionally. But during the last 

 three days what had been here dark, deep water became 

 a rough stream, which clearly revealed the yellow 

 boulders at the bottom. On our very last morning 

 " Sarcelle," who had been disappointed throughout in 

 not getting a good salmon, determined to make a final 

 attempt from The Rocks where he had made his first. 

 I had packed up on the previous night, and was ready 

 for breakfast at eight o'clock, with all my goods stowed 

 away on the carriage, when he triumphantly appeared 

 with an 8-lb. salmon and a 5~lb. grilse. He had caught 

 them in this newly formed rapid, the salmon being close 

 by the side. 



The Rocks, however, were troublesome when they 

 were slippery, but there were little niches and crevices 

 on their shoulders and sides, from which grew flowering 

 ling and tiny seedling pines, by the aid of which we 

 could manage to insert the edge of a boot sole some- 

 where and hold on. " Sarcelle " one evening had 

 hooked a capital fish in pretty strong water, and had 

 to follow it as best he could over The Rocks. Generally 

 very sure-footed, on this occasion he tumbled on his 

 back, keeping the rod all the time in his hands, but of 



