18 FORAYS AMONG SALMON AND DEER. 



Now, possibly, ivadrr, you m;iy be disposed to smile 

 at the bare idea of nerves beiug affected by such a 

 trifling cause as the rise of a fish ; but you have not 

 tried it, or you would not be guilty of such an egregi- 

 ous error. Your only acquaintance, as yet, with the 

 " genus Salmo " has beeu as he lay on the marble slab 

 at your fishmonger's, or transformed as he lay on the 

 table ; and, therefore, I can excuse your misconception. 

 But, suppose yourself for the moment a sportsman, or 

 rather which was Walter's case a Londoner begin- 

 ning his first season in the Highlands. You have 

 journeyed many miles to catch your first salmon, never 

 having as yet caught anything beyond a trout of a 

 pound's weight, or a jack of five or six ; you reach the 

 bank of your river ; you throw the fly, selected with so 

 much care, at first timidly and anxiously, but gradually 

 with more and more confidence, and eventually even 

 carelessly ; at length you reach the extreme pitch of 

 negligence ; your eyes dilate as you yield to reverie ; 

 your thoughts become scattered, as you whip the 

 waters mechanically; when suddenly a slight curl 

 appears on the surface ; a sob-like sound for a moment 

 reaches your ear, as though some troubled water-sprite 

 had just sunk beneath the wave, and instantly an elec- 

 tric shock passes quickly up your line and down your 

 rod, which at once dispels all your " castles in the air," 

 and awakens you to the reality that you have just lost 

 your first salmon. 



Leaving Walter to try for better luck, we again 

 started to proceed up the stream, passing two or three 

 likely pools, whose merits however I did not test, 

 Donald's advice being that I should at once direct my 

 steps to the best spot in the river, some little distance 

 further up. After sundry frantic leaps over tributary 

 burns, whose black peaty bottoms suggestive of the 



