SALMON FISHING 191 



rise, which we did get, and should have asserted 

 afterwards with perfect confidence that we had 

 never stirred a fish. One curious point was, that 

 though we changed patterns and sizes of flies, 

 and interchanged them with each other, I could 

 not move one of the smaller salmon, but only 

 the big one, while my friend at different times 

 moved every one of the smaller fish and never the 

 big one. We had also on this day a very good 

 illustration of the value of knowing a river. We 

 had often fished this pool before, when it was 

 in better order and the fish were not visible, and 

 we now saw that the fish were lying in exactly 

 that part of the pool where we had most often 

 risen or hooked a fish. The reason seemed to 

 be in these particularly comfortable looking flat 

 stones, on which the salmon rested, but till we 

 had once seen this, we had never realised the 

 special virtue of that one spot in the whole pool. 

 An old gillie, who had known a Highland 

 salmon river for very many years, once told me 

 of a similar experience. There was a deep black 

 stretch of the river, about a quarter of a mile 

 long, where the water flowed with a smooth even 

 current between high wooded banks. This part 



