LEAVES FROM A GA3IE BOOK. 107 



When the thaw did come, it was very sudden, and 

 the ice broke up before the river rose much, and large 

 floes of great thickness were carried headlong down the 

 quick-running streams. 



On the day the thaw began I took my rod on to 

 Kineskie water with Gillie Bremner, in the hopes of 

 finding a clear space for a cast or two, but the ice 

 was so broken up and scattered all over the water, 

 that I gave it up as hopeless. While walking home 

 along the bank, I saw what I took to be a dead kelt, 

 lying in a few feet of water ; so, with a view to 

 interment, it was pulled ashore by the gaff, when, lo 

 and behold ! it was found to be a quite clean-run fish, 

 to which the only apparent damage was a blow on the 

 nose, clearly caused by meeting a big lump of ice. 

 Further down we found a second one with exactly the 

 same injury, and from this it would seem that when 

 ice breaks up in great blocks before there is any 

 large rise in the river, then a good few running fish 

 are sure to be killed in this way. 



The thaw was of course followed by the usual floods, 



