LEAVES FROM A GAME BOOK. 193 



till we were ready to start home ; and^ moreover, he 

 could not well do otherwise, as the suit lent him 

 belonged to a very stout man of 6 feet 2 inches, our 

 unlucky companion being slim and some eight inches 

 shorter. 



From Pitfour I went to stay with Brydges Willyams 

 at Aberdalgie, on the Dupplin Water of the Earn. On 

 this trip anticipation and realization w^ere indeed wide 

 apart, for, during the whole six days I was there, the 

 river ran in an extremely dirty flood, and vexatious 

 work it was to walk daily to Dupplin Weir to look 

 at the fish passing up. Watch in hand, I used to 

 wait by the hour and count them running up, and 

 as, at whatever time of the day I paid my visit, 

 there were ever about the same number of fish 

 ascending the weir, it is quite certain several thousand 

 fish passed into the upper waters during that time. 

 On asking '* Old Tom," Willyams' fisherman, if the 

 fish ran as freely during the night as they did in 

 the day, he assured me that in the darkness they ran 

 even faster and in greater numbers, in which opinion 



