SCOTTISH SALMON-FISHING 171 



consolation from the failures of some more accom- 

 plished friend." On the other hand, let us hope 

 there are a few sympathetic souls who have some- 

 times toiled hard and caught nothing themselves, 

 and who when you have achieved some success 

 will rejoice with you. It is to these nice people 

 I address the following little tales of the river. 



Every man who is a devotee of some sport, once 

 he has mastered a few of its technicalities, is apt to 

 indulge in superlatives. He has conquered perhaps 

 some of its finer points, and therefore is apt to place 

 that particular form of amusement on what may be 

 a higher pinnacle than it is entitled to. My son, 

 aged seventeen, with the certainty and compre- 

 hensiveness of youth, having caught one black and 

 ugly monster in the River Tilt, tells me that salmon- 

 fishing is the finest sport in the world. Perhaps 

 he is right and perhaps not. At any rate, it is a 

 mean creature who will cavil at such enthusiasm. 

 Yet there are many fine points in most sports, and 

 the more we excel at anything, or better still, as in 

 the case of salmon-fishing, if we have good luck — ^the 

 more we are disposed to eliminate superlatives 

 and thank our stars for those golden days when 

 fortune smiles upon us. 



Having fished for trout and salmon for more than 

 forty years, I can truthfully say that good luck 

 in the latter sport is often more important than 

 skill. There are many days, even on the best rivers, 

 when no matter what your experience may be with 

 the fly, minnow, prawn or worm, you will never 

 move a fin, whereas there are other days when the 

 veriest tyro, unable to cast ten yards, and who 

 simply trails a fly at the end of the boat, will catch 



