AND ANGLING SONGS. 67 



that is to sa,y, they have not been obtruded on greatly by skilful 

 fly-fishers. Such was my experience, at any rate, in relation to 

 the Deveron and Bogie. There were plenty anglers established 

 in the district, but they were all, so far as I could ascertain, of 

 the old school. The tackle and salmon-flies in vogue were also 

 primitive in the extreme. In the getting up of these, the jailer 

 of Huntly was looked upon as a crack hand ; he was also the 

 referee-general on all matters pertaining to fishing, and reckoned 

 piscator primus on the streams round about. I purchased a few 

 of his manipulations, but I fear, unless hard put to it, shall 

 never take an opportunity of testing them. When at Huntly, 

 by kind permission of her Grace the late Duchess of Gordon, I 

 tried the policy waters for salmon. I also spent a day or two 

 with my old friend Mr. Hay Gordon, at Mayen House, and 

 fished the Avochy streams, superintending Rothiemay, which 

 belong to him. The river, unfortunately, was quite out of order, 

 being at least a foot higher than its usual level, and in the 

 course of being subjected to a succession of freshets. I cap- 

 tured, however, with the salmon-fly, a very respectable dish of 

 river -trout, and had an opportunity of judging of the capabilities 

 of the Deveron as a troutiug stream. Above Huutly, in the 

 open, unrestricted water, I gave both it and the Bogie a special 

 trial, devoting a couple of days to each ; and as these were of the 

 sunny order, I brought the worm, my favourite summer lure, 

 into play. My largest trout taken in the Deveron, a short way 

 above Huntly, weighed about two pounds, and presided 'over 

 three dozens of others, most of them respectable in their dimen- 

 sions, and all taken within the space of three hours. From the 

 Bogie, in a curtailed forenoon's fishing, I extracted fifty-four 

 trout, of which the toppers, eighteen in number, weighed, on the 

 average, half-a-pound. 



