198 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING. 



he rugs when I'm sleeping,' said he, ' I think I'll find 

 him noo ; ' and no doubt it is probable that he would. 

 Accordingly, after a comfortable nap of three or four 

 hours, Duncan was awoke by a most unceremonious 

 tug at his jaws. In a moment he was on his feet, his 

 rod well up, and the fish swattering down the stream. 

 He followed as best he could, and was beginning to 

 think of the rock at Craigellachie, when he found to 

 his great relief that he could ' get a pull on him.' He 

 had now comparatively easy work ; and exactly twelve 

 hours after hooking him, he cleicked him at the head 

 of Lord Fife's water : he weighed fifty-four pounds, 

 Dutch, and had the tide lice upon him." 



Thus Duncan Grant has instructed us how to man- 

 age a large Salmon. Let us now see how a large 

 Salmon may manage us. 



In the year 1815, Robert Kerse hooked a clean 

 Salmon of about forty pounds in the Makerstoun 

 Water, the largest, he says, he ever encountered : sair 

 work he had with him for some hours ; till at last Rob, 

 to use his own expression, was " clean dune out." He 

 landed the fish, however, in the end, and laid him on 

 the channel ; astonished, and rejoicing at his prodigious 

 size, he called out to a man on the opposite bank of the 

 river, who had been watching him for some time. 

 " Hey, man, sic a fish !" 



He then went for a stone to fell him with ; but as 

 soon as his back was turned, the fish began to wamble 

 towards the water, and Kerse turned, and jumped upon 

 it ; over they both tumbled, and they, line, hook, and 

 all went into the Tweed. The fish was too much for 



