350 ROD AND RIVER 



salmon-water. Our host was unable to fish after 

 two o'clock, having to fulfil an engagement. I 

 failed to move a single fish until just before 

 luncheon, when I hooked an eighteen-pounder, 

 which, having come short at the fly, gave me the 

 slip. When we met at mid-day, our host had 

 caught one fish, and my other friend three, vary- 

 ing in weight from thirteen to twenty pounds. 

 While we were at luncheon it began to rain, and 

 it continued to do so heavily throughout the 

 remainder of the day. When he left us, our 

 host instructed me to go down-stream and my 

 other friend to fish up. I had previously been 

 fishing with, I think, a * Butcher ' or a Jock 

 Scott, and changed to a Silver Gray. At the 

 second or third cast I rose a fish which came 

 short ; a few minutes later another fish rose in a 

 similar manner. Shortly afterwards a third came 

 and took me, a twenty-one-pounder, and after a 

 most exciting battle I landed it. Some fifty yards 

 lower down a fourth fish, of much the same size, 

 rose, and I succeeded in landing it also. I rose 

 a fifth shortly afterwards, and on my return to the 

 upper water, where we had rested for luncheon, 

 I secured a sixth of about twenty-three pounds. 

 All these fish were taken on a Silver Gray. My 

 friend who had gone up-stream, a far better 

 fisherman than I am, succeeded in taking two 

 more fish, and, if my memory serves me truly, I 



