HVILESTED, 1901 137 



together the broken joint, and was playing the fly 

 over the likely parts of the stream, where in a short 

 time he hooked and landed a nice grilse of some eight 

 pounds. Then his sense of humour suggested to him 

 a trick. He knocked the fish on the head, undid his 

 impromptu splice, returned the whole " bag of tricks," 

 including the fish, to the place from which he had 

 fished it out, and sought an interview with his now 

 cooled and repentant master. He was willing to 

 admit that he had acted like a fool, " a d d fool," 

 and fell in readily with the suggestion that they 

 should return to the scene of their morning adventure 

 and see whether the rod could not be fished out, and 

 the damage repaired. Again the grapnel was brought 

 into use with the same success as before. It soon be- 

 came apparent that some heavy body was attached 

 to the end of the line, which to the amazement 

 (apparently) of both master and man, material- 

 ised in the shape of a silvery fresh-run fish. " The 

 rod," muttered the astonished angler, "does its work 

 better out of my hands than in them." He fully 

 believed that the line and fly had remained in the 

 water and had attracted and captured the fish with- 

 out human intervention, and often related to a 

 delighted but incredulous audience how the rod and 

 line he had flung into the water caught a fish for 

 itself. 



But this digression has detained us too long by 

 Leding pool. However, we have not much further to 

 go. Next we dance over a shallow, then pause at a 

 long stream which in my first year was a certain cast 

 for good-sized sea-trout, but which I found deserted 

 on the occasion of subsequent visits ; then a boiling 



