174 DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



them great men burdened with matters of such 

 weight and moment that the fishing was but little 

 in their minds, and was very surprised when I 

 discovered that it was my description of the river, 

 on torn-out pages of The Fishing Gazette, in 

 which they were so absorbed. To give advice 

 about fishing is rather an undertaking, for there are 

 fishers to whom guidance is worse than useless, 

 and my descriptions snares, at each and all of which 

 they swear in turn. To lose seven minnows and 

 get no fish, as happened to one of these, almost 

 excused his language. 



"It has been an open Winter with every chance 

 for salmon to ascend the river, and clean fish have 

 been seen in several of the pools/' is the news that 

 has often come during the second week in January 

 with the effect of firing the imagination of the 

 waiting sportsman. It is then his memory trots 

 out the doings of days past when early prizes have 

 fallen to his rod and also indistinct shadows of still 

 bigger fish that through some accident, some care- 

 lessly undetected flaw in line or faulty hook, have 

 not reached the bank. Then comes a longing to 

 take a peep, just a peep, at the salmon tackle. I 

 know I shall find my hooks free from rust, my 

 winches clean and their bearings oiled, and the 

 whippings of the rods sound and varnished ; but 

 a new line may be needed in the event of my really 

 determining to go. I have often had to think I 

 ought not to go, but close on the heels of such 

 thinking has come the thought that it would be 

 a pity to break the sequence of so many years of 

 going, and then, to settle the vexed question, I 

 have confessed that I have always returned extra 



