156 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE 



9| Ib. By the time these were landed the tide 

 had begun to run strongly upwards, bringing 

 with it a nice lot of fresh sea-trout, of which 

 I secured six in the next twenty minutes. 



Fishing was then over for the day, as it is 

 only at "first of flood" that even sea-trout rise 

 for a short time, while salmon stop rising as 

 soon as the gravel begins to be flooded off the 

 shoals. So I collected the fish and hid them 

 in a tuft of rushes, and after luncheon and a 

 pipe, walked home, calling at the keeper's on the 

 way to tell him to send for the fish, which I did 

 not care to carry back myself. 



Tuesday found me again in the same place, 

 and although I could only fish for a short time 

 before the tide came in, I got two salmon weigh- 

 ing 18 Ib. between them, and lost another I had 

 nearly landed, on a bit of wire fence which had 

 at some time been washed in, and which I could 

 plainly see in the deep part of the water bending 

 as the fish struggled before the final catastrophe. 

 The only other adventure of the day was that 

 a second fish took the tail fly after I had nearly 

 landed one on the dropper, and pulled his pre- 

 decessor off in his eager struggle to escape, 

 falling a victim himself to his philanthropic 

 efforts. 



Three times during that eventful week did 

 I have two salmon on at a time, but I never 

 succeeded in landing both of them, though once, 



