A CURIOUS OCCURRENCE 229 



The river was very low and clear at the time ; 

 so much so, that it was in good order for sunning, 

 and therefore in no state for fish to travel in. I 

 chanced, however, to hook a salmon with a fly, 

 which, after being played a little, got off the hook : 

 there was a cairn just above the spot where this 

 occurred, and I told my fisherman to set the net 

 belonging to it that night ; he did so with a very 

 bad grace, assuring me that it was perfectly useless ; 

 or, as he was pleased to express himself, " just per- 

 fect nonsense." Nevertheless the fish, having 

 started from his stream, was caught in it that night. 



John Crerar mentioned to me another instance 

 where a salmon, having broken a fisherman's line, 

 went down the Tay for a mile, and then up the 

 Tummel three miles, and was there caught the day 

 following by the same fisherman, who thus regained 

 his fly with two or three fathoms of line attached 

 to it. 



On the other hand, I know of three well-attested 

 instances of salmon having been caught almost 

 immediately after they had broken the fisherman's 

 line ; but I conclude these fish were touched at 

 first in a part that was scarcely sensitive. A very 

 curious circumstance of this sort occurred in Isle 

 Isla, where a gentleman was broken by a salmon, 

 which he caught immediately afterwards ; upon 

 landing it, he found, to his amazement, that he 

 had not touched the fish itself the second time, but 

 that his hook was linked in the one left in his mouth 

 previously. This was a very delicate affair ; for 

 had not the pull upon the fish been moderate and 



