234 FIELD-NOTES FOR THE YEAR. CH. XVII. 



into my own hands a little more — in fact to be the 

 active instead of the passive agent. The trout, too, 

 began to feel weary of the contest, and to allow him- 

 self to be led about : at last I brought him to the 

 edge, but just as the landing-net was being deli- 

 cately slipped under him, away he went again, and 

 ran the line round a broken piece of bank on the 

 opposite side. * I am afraid something very like an 

 imprecation escaped me ; and if it did, I am con- 

 fident that Job himself could not blame me. Just 

 as I had quite given all up, the trout most carefully 

 and good-naturedly turned back the way he went, 

 undoing the line again as neatly as possible. After 

 a little more running to and fro he fairly gave in, and 

 this time we got him safely into the landing-net, 

 when I found that he was one of the aforesaid "brown 

 lugs," weighing nearly 5 lbs. — the largest trout 

 that I ever killed on the Findhorn, and mastered 

 too with a fly only fit for parr of the smallest size. 

 I have frequently found that when a large trout 

 runs in that undecided manner at my fly, he will 

 so in right earnest at a much smaller one. Salmon 

 are more uncertain : it has happened to me that, 

 even in clear water, a salmon has leaped over or 

 refused a small salmon-fly, but has taken greedily 

 a very large-sized one. But this is an exception; 

 and my experience would lead me, as a general 



