204 LINES IN PLEASANT PLACES 



fortable hotel by the strong, highly coloured river, 

 count up a total of a trifle over 500 lb. to our two rods 

 in little more than a fortnight. These were mostly 

 sea trout, but of a lower average weight than is usual 

 at this period of the season, the run of heavy fish 

 anything from 6 lb. to 16 lb. having apparently taken 

 place in July instead of August. The rule on this 

 river is first a run of big sea trout, then a run of smaller 

 size, and, lastly, a small run of bull trout, with occa- 

 sional salmon throughout. H. has had the best of the 

 bag, but a few salmon and grilse on another river gives 

 me 244 lb. as my share. 



My prettiest experience in the wet week was inter- 

 esting. The river was big and dirty, the rain most 

 hearty. The prospects were so poor that H. stuck 

 to Anthony Trollope in the veranda. A thin piece 

 of water on the lower beat to my mind offered a remote 

 chance for a sea trout, and I was rowed down in a 

 particular direct rainfall to it. The boatman shook 

 his head at the small Bulldog I put on ; he would 

 have preferred a darker fly, salmon size. In a rough 

 tumble of water over small boulders, which were not a 

 foot beneath the foam-headed waves, a fish fastened, 

 and the spin of the reel was shrill above the tumult of 

 the waters. The grilse rod was tested severely, as in 

 truth were my arms for a few minutes. The fish rushed 

 forty yards down stream at express speed, then dodged 

 and fought right and left. By and by the clever boat- 

 man got the boat through every variety of strong water 

 to a landing place, and in good time the fish came to 

 the gaff, a splendid bull trout of 10 lb. I wish some 

 of my friends who are not satisfied upon the bull trout 

 question could have seen this dark, broadly-spotted, 

 burly fish, as it lay side by side with a silvery four- 

 pound sea trout that I had previously taken with the 



