Salmon Fishing. 77 



a time, and deprive oneself of two good hours' 

 rest, to make flies in a dreary dormitory at an 

 hotel ; defend me, I say, from such delights ! 



So lovely a river is the Ness, that I could go 

 on flogging its fair sides hour after hour, without 

 being surfeited with the hope, ever sanguine, but 

 scarcely ever realised, of a rising fish. A change 

 however for the better awaited me soon after I 

 commenced fishing on the second day. I had 

 scarcely wetted my line in the lower water, when 

 I distinctly saw in the most rapid part a gleam, 

 like a flash of lightning, and felt a slight tighten- 

 ing of the line at the same moment, but nothing 

 more. I had a small sober-looking fly on a 

 favourite of mine, when the water is not too 

 high, and the sun bright, as distinct from the 



shewy specimens C m n displayed to me on 



the previous day, as a shadow from a sunbeam. 

 I tried him again, but in vain ; so I left him 

 to his stubborn fit, determined to bag him, if 

 possible by and bye later on in the day. 



The weather was anything than what you 



