220 MEMORIES OF A RIVER 



the stream to be released. As it passed the 

 boulder a dim grey shadow shot from the black 

 cavern beneath, and missed the wriggling prize. 

 Here, then, was an opportunity, and a plan 

 quickly formed. From the shallows further 

 down a four-inch baby trout was soon procured, 

 sliced through in proper slant, trimmed secundum 

 artem and mounted on a big hook. A minute 

 later this, too, came skipping and jerking past 

 the boulder, and then the reel sang pleasantly 

 as some twenty yards of line ran swiftly off; a 

 beautiful trout, that presently pulled down the 

 scale at about two pounds. 



A little further up, a heavy plank reaching 

 from shore to a big flat stone to command a 

 certain salmon-lie, recalls an awkward predica- 

 ment. This river holds salmon as well as trout, 

 and one day in late summer a goodly fish was 

 hooked in a pool some hundred yards above. 

 In this pool, however, he refused to stay, the 

 river was high and, in spite of all persuasion, 

 down-stream he needs must go. And as the 

 plank came ever nearer it was speedily seen 

 that the river was almost lapping it and, should 

 the fish pass beneath, the unpleasant choice 

 would be presented either to ' break ' or to dive 

 overhead in four feet of water and follow his 

 example. Fortunately, at this moment two 



