152 HAPPY HUNTING-GROUNDS 



usually travelled as far as the sheltered deeps I have 

 just described. Just at the close of my former visit 

 I had a desperate encounter with a salmon which I 

 hooked there on a cast of the finest natural gut such as 

 is generally only used for dry-fly fishing. We had had 

 a long spell of extraordinarily hot and fine weather, 

 and the river had shrunk till the water was so fine 

 and clear that the fish shied hopelessly at salmon or 

 sea-trout casts. Desperate diseases need desperate 

 remedies, and my boldness was not altogether un- 

 justified, although I was often broken. Even the 

 small sea- trout of one to two pounds' weight had a 

 good chance for their lives, and I had to be very careful 

 in regulating the amount of strain to put on a hooked 

 fish, and to avoid striking too hard at a rising one. 



On the morning of which I write I had been fairly 

 successful, and was beginning to gain confidence. 

 Something took my fly, an Alexandra, which I had 

 found attractive under the circumstances, although 

 I never found it much good for sea-trout and salmon 

 under normal conditions. The strain, and the way 

 in which the fish hugged the deep water, soon con- 

 vinced me that I had hooked a salmon, and from 

 the first I had very little hope of landing him. How- 

 ever all went well for more than half an hour ; the 

 fish began to show signs of exhaustion, and at last 

 turned on its side, its broad tail breaking the water. 

 I unscrewed my landing-net from the handle, and 

 substituted a gaff, and very cautiously towed the fish 

 towards a still place under the flat rock near the 

 bottom on which I had taken my stand. The fish 

 was almost within striking distance, and I had begun 

 to stretch out my arm with gaff in hand when the 



