A GILLIE'S OPINION 195 



in the ranks, more especially among the younger 

 and better educated, who have profited by 

 experience and observation, as in the following 

 instance, which took place some years ago on a 

 well-known stretch of the Aberdeenshire Dee. 

 Pool after pool had been fished in vain, and a 

 new cast having been reached the old vexed 

 question was discussed with the gillie, who on 

 that famed water had assisted at the death of 

 hundreds of salmon. 



' Shall we try Jock Scott ? ' 



4 Well it might do very well.' 



' Or this Gordon ? ' 



4 It's a capital fly the Gordon.' 



1 Or a Thunder and Lightning ? ' 



' Couldn't do better ! ' 



1 In fact, then, it doesn't matter which ? ' 



< No' a ! ' 



One of the most successful salmon fishers of 

 the last generation, as the result of the experi- 

 ence of a long life-time on Tay and Tummel, 

 latterly confined himself strictly to a single 

 pattern of salmon-fly, dressed by himself. It 

 was a thin, light-blue floss-silk body ribbed with 

 tinsel, and a light wing of mixed fibres. 



When we come to consider trout and trout- 

 flies, the question is in one way different ; 

 for whatever salmon-flies, so-called, may be 



