THE CONTENTS OF OUR CREEL. 89 



with him ; but my gilly contrived to head him, and by 

 throwing stones as he reached some calmer water, 

 drove him up the stream again. This, however, was 

 no improvement. One of the most critical stages of a 

 salmon's struggles is when he turns back and rushes 

 towards the fishermen. It is next to impossible to 

 wind up the line fast enough if the fish is darting as 

 rapidly as he generally does ; and the danger then is 

 that the tackle, catching on some stone or other 

 obstacle, may be suddenly snapped, or that, if it be- 

 comes slack, the fish may, as he can in a moment 

 suck it out of his flesh and escape. On the present 

 occasion I wound up my line as fast as I possibly 

 could, but it would not do ; and I was obliged to run 

 backwards to keep my line taut, at the risk of tumbling 

 over the stones and breaking my rod, line, and shins 

 together. However, as the fish fortunately did not 

 escape, this rush up the stream told considerably upon 

 him, and gave me a material advantage, for he now 

 had not only me but the force of the current to con- 

 tend with, a coalition which soon proved too much 

 for him. He weighed, according to Murdoch's calcu- 

 lation, about seven pounds ; and there were several 

 sea-lice still upon him, thus proving that he was just 

 fresh from the sea. I caught, in the course of the next 

 three hours, four more salmon of about the same 

 weight, and most of them still carrying sea-lice ; one 

 was wounded in the shoulder, having evidently had a 

 narrow escape with his life from some seal. I was now 

 joined by Alister, in a bad humour for having, like 

 myself, missed so many fish ; however, he had no 

 great cause of complaint, being accompanied by Hector 

 bearing six very nice salmon, none weighing less than 

 seven pounds. And now, having so many miles be- 

 tween us and our head-quarters, we packed up our 



