A LUCKY CAST. 117 



Whatever you do, have nothing to say to multiplying 

 reels : they are apt to betray you in the hour of trial. 



My first discovery of their insufficiency for heavy fish 

 created some embarrassment at the time. I had a pet 

 multiplier, which ran beautifully, and which I had long 

 used for trout fishing. As it was sufficiently large to 

 contain a salmon line, I employed it for that purpose 

 also, till it began to get ricketty with the more heavy 

 work. One day, the water being fallen in, and the 

 morning also being sunny, so as to exclude the expect- 

 ation of killing a salmon, I put some trout tackle at the 

 end of my line, which was on the said reel, and began 

 trouting in Bolside-water. In the course of the day a 

 cloud passed before the sun ; and at the same time, as is 

 usually the case, a slight breeze arose and ruffled the 

 surface of the water. I hastened to change my tackle, 

 and substituted a small salmon fly in place of the trout 

 ones: small, because, as I have said, the water was 

 quite fallen in. Though many years have passed over 

 my head since that time, I remember this fly well. 

 His wings were of the clear brown feather from the 

 bittern ; his body of black wool, with a hackle of the 

 same colour ; and his tail of a very pronounced yellow, 

 being made of the feather of a golden pheasant ; red he 

 was in the head, and altogether of a very commendable 

 and alluring aspect. The curl on the water still con- 

 tinuing, I whisked him off gaily. At the very second 

 throw, the pool being somewhat dead, I saw the water 

 heave up, advancing in a wave towards me. I waited 

 patiently for the break, which was a slight one, but 

 pleasant and beauteous to behold. This I knew to be 



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