182 DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



and knows nothing of the fishing ; the Captain is 

 the dearest of good fellows and a happy fisher, catch 

 fish who may ; so you can be sure the news of his 

 mistake was broken to him gently. The host re- 

 ferred him to me to ask for some distinguishing 

 mark by which he might know a kelt, so he came 

 to me and said : " Would you mind telling me 

 how I may know whether a fish is a salmon or a 

 kelt?" 



I told him of many signs that would stamp a fish 

 a kelt but that the first one he caught might have 

 none of them and yet be kelt all over to those who 

 have once seen clean and unclean fish side by side. 

 What the Captain had done and heard caused him 

 to have such a mighty awe of bringing home an- 

 other kelt that when, on the following day, he hooked 

 a salmon of thirty pounds, neither its perfect shape, 

 nor its great strength in a fifty-minutes struggle 

 dispelled his fear. So great did the doubt remain 

 that his soldier comrade, Colonel B , who was 

 fishing on the other side, was asked his opinion ; 

 but he could not give one from such a distance 

 as separated them ; so they met at the bridge, 

 where they held an inquest and, being still undecided, 

 they came to me. I was wading, and unconscious 

 of onlookers other than my gillie, when he called : 

 " You are wanted, sir," and, when I turned, I saw 

 the Colonel, the Captain and their two gillies, all in 

 fear that the splendid fresh-run fish was nothing but 

 a kelt. 



Peter's Pool is the first to answer to a southern 

 wind and, luckily for me, it was in my beat the day 

 the change came. The salmon had ceased their 

 leaping and were no doubt as joyful and as full of 



