178 THE SALMON. 



spectacle occasionally by the appearance of some large 

 salary whose noble form glancing for a single instant 

 above the blue abyss, attracts and rivets the eye of the 

 beholder. Most curious and engaging is a scene of this 

 description, on a calm, cloudless eve, when the sea-tide 

 is flowing and almost at its full, murmuring plaintively 

 at one's feet, and presenting in front, a billowless extent 

 of waters, tinged in some places, by the retiring sun- 

 light, in others, and in the distance, grey and indistinct, 

 scarcely to be recognised among the hanging mists of 

 the horizon itself. Such an eve was that of the 10th 

 day of June, 1836 ; such was the appearance presented 

 on it, along the coasts of the Moray frith, as I sauntered 

 down to the beach, rod in hand, under the expectation of 

 alluring one or more of the numerous sea-trout which, 

 as I had anticipated, were crowding in with the tide and 

 animating the surface in every possible direction. 



Having often before heard of the capture of these fish 

 in salt water, by means of the artificial fly, under cir- 

 cumstances precisely similar to those described, I felt 

 naturally anxious to accomplish the like feat with my 

 own hands. On this occasion, however, I was not 

 destined to be successful, and although managing now 

 and then, to heave my lure with sufficient lightness and 

 dexterity immediately over the belling snouts of several 

 prime fish which, more adventurous than the main 

 shoal, had edged themselves shoreward, to within twelve 

 yards of the margin, I found myself, nevertheless, 

 wholly unable to divert the attention of any one of them 

 from the object that seemed to have pre-engaged it. 

 My success, in fact, was limited to the seizure of a few 

 smolts or orange-fins, which, as I drew in my flies, close 

 to the beach, invariably favoured me with attempts to 

 get hold of them. 



