190 LINES IN PLEASANT PLACES 



in hand, was now determined to mend his damaged 

 reputation, and listened with humble attention to my 

 injunction to take it easy, and not to hit till he was 

 quite sure. He was standing on a small slab of rock 

 that protruded into the water, and, unfortunately, 

 there was nothing but lofty rocks behind us. What 

 one likes is a nice beach or field upon which one can 

 step backwards, conducting the salmon safely and 

 easily into the net. There was no possibility of this 

 now ; indeed, we were forced to change our tactics 

 in a hurry. The salmon at the finish came in more 

 quickly than I wished, and was virtually under the 

 point of the rod. With a couple of inexperienced men 

 I feared a smash if I attempted to land at such a place. 

 Salmon at close quarters often prove troublesome. 

 This one was several times brought near enough for a 

 skilled gaffer to strike him as he swam slowly along 

 parallel with the boat, but this would have been too 

 much to expect from a learner. I had, therefore, to 

 keep to the boat, and not only to bring the fish in, but 

 to guide it past me to the ledge below. The fish, how- 

 ever, as I knew, was firmly hooked ; it was merely a 

 question of time, and, as a fact, Ole very cleverly gaffed 

 a clean-run salmon of 13 Ib. That day, besides the 

 salmon caught and another lost, I had grilse of 5^ Ib., 

 3j Ib., 4} Ib., and 3 Ib. 



It was my good fortune to have Pot Pool again for 

 the evening. Again it was dull, with an incipient 

 drizzle as we started out at six o'clock. The fish were 

 now rising, at any rate, in my pool. At the very 

 entrance to it, which was, in fact, the connecting run 

 from The Rocks, I killed, after a fussy tussle and plenty 

 of leaping out of the water, a grilse of 4 Ib. ; and we 

 had barely rowed out into the stream when a fish of 

 6 Ib. or 7 Ib. leaped head and tail out of the water at 



