THE SALMON ANGLER'S OUTFIT 

 on, or the risk would have been serious, as I Icnew nothing about the 

 soundings. The water was intensely cold, but it proved to be only waist- 

 deep; I reached the far side and soon had out the fish, a nice fellow of 

 twelve pounds. Then I had to recross the stream to recover the other 

 two fish, and returned to our farmhouse -lodging a heavy-laden, but well- 

 satisfied, being. Be sure that full justice was done to the breakfast awaiting 

 me. The sun was now high above Lamarkan, and not another fish was 

 killed or moved that day. 



Now the moral of this long yarn is not the merit of early-rising (though 

 it illustrates how groundless is the common belief that salmon will not 

 do business until after the normal human breakfast hour), but the expe- 

 diency of having a handy kind of gaff for solitary excursions. It is not 

 well to extol the goods of certain makers, and I avoid doing so, as it 

 might prove invidious to other makers of equal excellence. But I make 

 an exception in the matter of a particular gaff which I obtained more than 

 forty years ago from the late Mrs Hogg, a dear old lady who presided over 

 a tackle shop in Princes Street, Edinburgh, when the world was (at least 

 many of its present inhabitants were) younger and fresher than they are 

 now. Messrs Farlow, to whom I gave the pattern after Mrs Hogg's death, 

 have taken out a patent for it under the name of the Maxwell gaff; and 

 whereas I can claim no merit for the article, I may confidently pro- 

 nounce it to be, not pnly the best design in the market, but the only one 

 thoroughly satisfactory in every respect that I have ever seen. 



Dear old Mrs Hogg ! I trust that the sometime Mr Hogg was worthy 

 of you, and that, if you are now reunited to him, you are established in 

 the best of quarters. When I was but a lad she, being already a widow, 

 instructed me in the fascinating art of fly-tying. Her verdict at the end 

 of the first lesson was encouraging. 



•* I think ye'U dae," quoth she. ** There's yae thing I like aboot ye, 

 ye've no got sweetie pawms."* 



" Oh, that's a good thing, is it ? " I observed. 



" Deed an' it is! " she replied. " My certie ! the feathers and the silk 

 the lads spoils to me wi' their sweetie pawms." 



'Perspiring hands. 



37 



