128 Salmon Fishing. 



showy fly, thinking in the height of my innocence 

 I might be fortunate enough to tempt Salmo- 

 Salar to try the taste of it. But no ! Friend 

 Salmo was not going to be entrapped by such 

 a greenhorn in the art. Still strolling on, I saw 

 Dolgeogh for the first time, and a more lovely 

 trout-stream I thought then, and still think now, 

 there could not be. It was no easy matter with 

 so small an affair as my little Copham trout-rod 

 to lodge the flies within an easy distance of the 

 opposite bank, where I saw at a glance the 

 big trout would be sure to lodge. After landing 

 and throwing back two or three small fry, I 

 came to the little pool (if it can be so called), 

 where many and many a salmon have I 

 slaughtered since. No sooner had the flies 

 dropped on the surface, than up came a fish 

 at the stretcher, and I struck, and had him firm 

 enough. Though he fought well for a few 

 seconds, I very soon coaxed him on the gravel, 

 when I found he was a trout rather under a 

 pound and a half, and for so late a period, hand- 



