THE FIRST SALMON. 227 



whirling into the eddy again the same glorious dash 

 of foam appeared through the stream ; but this time 

 both Mr. Salmon and I were determined to succeed, 

 and we did I neither jerked nor moved the fly, and 

 in another second the top of the rod bent half way to 

 the water assured me that the salmon had his fly 

 (safely), and I had him. Whether, however, the satis- 

 faction was mutual, I doubt very much from the way in 

 which he behaved ; he flew about the pool like one 

 possessed, whilst I stood apparently calm, but in reality 

 nearly as much excited as he was. He ran so hard 

 and incessantly for ten minutes that at the end of that 

 time he gave up quite suddenly, and allowed himself 

 to be led alongside a rock, behind which Jemmy was 

 watching for him, knee deep in the water, with the 

 gaff. He was floating close to the surface, belly upper- 

 most, and showing no other sign of life than an occa- 

 sional impatient wag of his tail, when the gaff was 

 struck, and he left his native element for ever ; a sharp 

 blow on the head settled him (whenever you land a 

 salmon, kill him at once ; if he is allowed to wriggle 

 about it is sure to spoil the fish). He was a fine lOlb. 

 fish. The tail of the pool furnished a grilse of from 41b. 

 to 51b., which was deposited beside its senior under 

 some heather. 



A council of war was now held, whether up or down 

 stream was to be the order of march ; the point was 

 settled by Jemmy's saying that he had just seen a fish 

 spring out of the water, some fifty yards below, in a 

 pool which I had never tried before, and to which I 

 now proceeded. I tried the top part, which looked 

 much the besif;, but without moving a fin ; and I was 

 saying to Jemmy that we were to have a poor day's 

 sport, when a great splash half way down the pool, 

 where it is rather narrow, with a slight but very deep 



