1 78 Salmon Fishing. 



usual, the first thing I caught sight of, was a 

 friend's rod bent in that unmistakeable way 

 that told me he was "fast of a fish" to use 

 the favourite phrase of an old frequenter of the 

 Dovey, in the Ffridd Pool. Before I had quite 

 come up to him he exclaimed aloud to me in a 

 very exultant tone, " a big un this time, and no 

 mistake!" For some minutes did I linger by 

 the spot in hopes of seeing "the big un" landed; 

 but not a bit nearer seemed such a result, though 

 the fish kept moving up and down the pool, and 

 ought, I thought, to have shewn symptoms of 

 caving in. This was about eleven ; and I soon 

 walked away to the pools above, in the hope of 

 getting hold of a " big un " too. Between two 

 and three o'clock in the afternoon I returned to 

 the same pool ; and lo, there was my friend 

 with his rod still bent as before. "What a 

 lucky fellow that is," said I to myself, " to hook 

 another in the same pool, after disturbing it so 

 much with the first fish." To my unutterable 

 surprise however, I found him hard at work still 



