LEAVES FKOM A GAME BOOK. 197 



a saluting sentry, both barrels were discharged, and to 

 our great astonishment and his great joy, three birds 

 fell from the covey 1 



On the 29 th I was again at Aberdalgie with Brydges 

 Willyams, and now I had my revenge for the bad luck 

 of the previous season. In nine days, during which my 

 host and I got 34 fish, there fell to my lot a red- 

 letter one of six fish, headed by that forty-pounder 

 which is the fulfilment of the dream of all anglers, 

 and which I never expected to have the good fortune 

 to realize, for there are hundreds and hundreds of 

 fishermen to whom such a stroke of luck never comes. 

 This fish gave me a fine fight, for I was alone, and 

 eventually gafi'ed him for myself nearly a mile below 

 where I hooked him, in the tail of Lord Dupplin's 

 stream, not far below the weir ; and from this same 

 stream the late Lord Dupplin once took twenty-one 

 fish in a day. 



From Aberdalgie I went on to visit Colonel Legh 

 and Ainslie "Walker at Ballathie-on-Tay, and on the 

 12th, 13th and 15th of October we got seventeen fish, 



