6 POISSONNERIE V. NATIVE ELEMENT. 



lunge after the fly. The " fesh," however, was not 

 pricked, and we left Walter in a state of nervous hope 

 that he would return to the charge. 



Now, possibly, reader, you may he disposed to smile 

 at the hare idea of nerves being 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 egregious 

 error. Your only acquaintance, as yet, with the "genus 

 Salmo" has been 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 beginning 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 care- 

 lessly ; 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 electric shock 

 passes swiftly 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, 



