120 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING 



Leader-water, which falls into the Tweed about a 

 mile and a half below Melrose, near Fly Bridge. In 

 his youth he was an ardent and expert salmon fisher ; 

 in after life he went out to India, and served honour- 

 ably there for forty years. At length, in the decline 

 of life, he was seized with the Swiss passion an 

 unconquerable yearning to revisit the land of his 

 sires. Night after night he heard in his dreams the 

 murmuring lapse of the Leader as it glided down his 

 native valley ; again he reposed in the sunny dell, 

 and thought of " auld lang syne " ; then, when the 

 cheerless morn broke forth, and he found himself on 

 a vast continent, far away from the land of his father's 

 he felt as one cast out of Paradise. Gone were the 

 visions of his early scenes and companions ; lost, 

 long lost, but too well remembered. How distant, 

 alas ! from the bonny copses of Carrol-side ! how 

 far from the silver waters of the Tweed 1 



After honourable service he set sail for the shores 

 of Scotland, determined to pass the remainder of his 

 days in comparative privacy and tranquillity. I 

 met him soon after his arrival, and gave him some 

 salmon fishing. It was delightful to see how he 

 enjoyed himself : he waded as deep as any of us. 

 And I well remember showing him a favourite seat 

 for a salmon near the point of a cairn : he cast his 

 fly at once in the exact spot to an inch, and threw 

 several times with the same adroitness ; not be- 

 cause he expected to raise a salmon for he well 

 knew that if a fish did not come at the first dexterous 

 throw, it was useless to cast a second time for him 

 in" the same place but because he felt great satis- 



