96 TOUR IN SUTHERLAND. CH. VI. 



of trout for breakfast, I put my rod together, and 

 leaving the horse and boat standing by the road- 

 side, I determined to take a quarter of an hour's 

 fishing, and if the trout did not rise, to continue our 

 journey. At the very first cast that I made, how- 

 ever, a large salmon took the fly, rather to my an- 

 noyance, knowing, as I did, that no salmon were 

 allowed to be killed in the Sutherland rivers this 

 season. But being once hooked, he might as well 

 be killed, so the fight commenced by the fish run- 

 ning clear out of the stream in which he was first 

 hooked, and going down like a stone to the bottom 

 of a deep black-looking pool below. Having only 

 single line and trout-tackle, I could not force him 

 much, but after waiting patiently with a gentle 

 but constant strain on the fish, in order that he 

 might still feel some weight upon his jaws, I at last, 

 in despair, gave him such a tug that he was dis- 

 lodged from his resting-place in spite of himself. 

 Off he went, sometimes across the stream, with 

 nearly the whole of my line out, the next moment 

 right under my feet in the deep pool under the rock 

 on which I was standing, and from which it was not 

 easy to move. There I could see him shaking his 

 head and trying to rub the hook out against the 

 gravel ; at another time he would take a sudden 

 dart to the right and left, and again shake his head 



