AND ANGLING SONGS. 283 



I ever engaged in, took place on the 21st of November 1864, 

 on Teviot. The reel ordinarily used by me happened to be out 

 of order, and I had substituted for it, without taking the pre- 

 caution of examining the state of the handle, one which had 

 been laid aside for an indefinite period. After setting up my 

 rod and attaching the casting-line and fly, I commenced opera- 

 tions at the head of a well-known salmon-cast, the Ninewells, 

 along the edge of which the wading, where it can be accom- 

 plished, is deep and unequal. I had not taken above three or 

 four throws, when the nut or screw by which the handle of the 

 reel was fastened on, becoming detached, the handle itself, by 

 the force of my throw across the pool, was precipitated forwards 

 and lodged among some large stones lying at a depth of nearly 

 five feet, and at a corresponding distance from the spot which I 

 occupied when taking the cast. It was some time before I could 

 detect where it lay, and nearly an hour passed before I suc- 

 ceeded, by means of a large hook fastened to a stick, in recover- 

 ing it. In the interim, three salmon-fishers, one after the other, 

 laid line carefully over the pool. As 1 had taken several good 

 fish from it, among them a twenty-two pound salmon, about a 

 fortnight before, and knew that, although they all failed in 

 bringing one to the surface, others were there, I was not dis- 

 couraged by their want of success ; quite otherwise, for, had a 

 fish been hooked in my presence by one or other of them, I 

 should probably have deserted the cast without giving it a trial. 

 My only source of discouragement arose from the state of my 

 reel, of which, although I had regained possession of the handle, 

 I was unable, from want of the nut, to make active use of in 

 the way of recovering line. I could still manage, however, to 

 apply it in the manner of a watch-key, so as to accomplish a few 

 revolutions at a time when it would invariably become detached 

 and require replacement. 



Under this drawback I recommenced fishing, using as a fly 



