1 68 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



reaching a spot which had been represented to me as the sure 

 hold of a good fish. The water, I well recollect, was in most 

 inviting condition ; and in the pool which I was bearing towards 

 the salmon were disporting themselves, two or three at a time. 

 Owing to the latter circumstance, I was thrown off my guard, it 

 appears, while taking a preparatory cast across the superintend- 

 ing ford a place not likely to be occupied by resting fish in 

 general, but which has its advantages in most salmon rivers, as 

 a sort of threshold or exercise-ground, where the line may be 

 properly soaked and lengthened, and the hand 'put in.' 



My attention being directed to the scene of animation further 

 down, a sudden arrest which was placed upon my line in its 

 home progress led me to conclude that I had run my fly foul of 

 a submersed rock or stump, and I was in the act of stepping 

 forward to disengage it, when out spun the contents of my reel 

 without check or stay ; the pas seul of a newly-run salmon, 

 thirty yards higher up, enlightening me as to the course they 

 had taken. I had shared, however, in the surprise of the 

 moment, beyond recall, and mechanically done that which it is 

 the natural impulse of all beginners in the practice of salmon- 

 fishing to do, namely, to drop, instead of throwing back the 

 rod's point. The result was the escape of the fish, carrying 

 along with it such a serious amount of line that the idea of being 

 stripped of that article altogether, and left to complete my angling 

 tour without it, flashed across me. I prudently resolved, there- 

 fore, not as yet to venture my reserve reel into the contest ; but 

 having assorted the broken line, and rigged it out afresh, I 

 returned to the stream. After a few throws, 011 arriving at the 

 neck of the pool, I was favoured with a boil, but, in the anxiety 

 of the moment, jerked away the hook, before the salmon, evi- 

 dently a large one, had time to seize it. The same thing occurred 

 thrice in succession. At length the fish took hold, only, how- 

 ever, to imitate the part of its predecessor, and, leaving rue in 



