A PONDEROUS SALMON. 107 



whose hooks would not have broken in the mouth of a 

 shark. 



My Scotch friend now fitted me out with one of his 

 own flies, but desired me not to throw any more in the 

 Carry-wheel ; " for," said he, M as sure as deid, the spirit 

 is against ye : he hampered yer heucks, he broke yer 

 goad and yer flee, and he pulled ye doon in the waters ; 

 and ye never would hae been seen again in this life, 

 gin I hadna cotched ye by the oxter. * Thae that the 

 Kelpie grips seldom rise again ; but nae ither spirit, ye 

 ken, has power in the rinnin' water." Whether I 

 partook of this superstition matters not ; but I left the 

 cast because it was unlucky, which is much the same 

 thing. 



I was now under the influence of some better spirit 

 of the flood ; for I absolutely landed two gilse of six 

 pounds each in a cast called " The Noirs." Wattie, 

 seeing my rod bent, came up : he said but little ; but 

 that little was the most unqualified abuse of my mis- 

 management. The fact is, I treated the gilse just as 

 I would have treated a trout ; a very base mistake. 

 I bagged them, however, notwithstanding, — thanks to 

 the excellence of the channel. 



The next cast I came to was called " The Brig-end ; " 

 and here I hooked a fine salmon : he was brave and 

 strenuous, and so ponderous, that it seemed as if my 

 hook had caught hold of a floating Norwegian pine, 

 " fit for the mast of some high ammiral." After various 

 eccentric courses, Master Fish made a sudden and des- 

 perate rush down the river; — out went my line with a 

 * The arm. 



