228 TANTALUS A-FISHING 



had I stirred. Had this befallen another angler, I should 

 have drawn conclusions unfavourable to his skill, for it is 

 a finer art to take fish in a small river than in a great one. 

 But I felt that I had made no blunders : yet was it almost 

 incredible that the water held no fish. 



Well, to make a short story of a long a very long day 

 the solitary result of nine hours' hard work was one 

 small salmon of 7 Ib. weight ; and not another was I con- 

 scious of moving in three miles of what used to be most 

 productive water. 



The scales fell from my eyes after dinner that night 

 when my host told me that he had taken precautions 

 against a visitation of salmon disease. 



' What made you fear that ? ' I inquired. 



'Oh,' said he, 'there were far too many fish in the 

 water, and I was told that we were sure to have the disease ; 

 so I have been netting it regularly.' 



A cold shudder shook me. Nets in that sweet little 

 river, hitherto sacred to the gentle craft ! sure the annals 

 of baby- farming could reveal nothing more blood-cur dling. 



' O o oh ! ' quoth I, ' have you netted it lately ? ' 



' We had the nets in last Saturday,' he replied. 



' Did you get much ? ' I asked in quavering tones. 



' We did fairly well,' said he. ' We took out a hundred 

 and eighty-six salmon and grilse.' 



There was nothing more to be said. Nothing that I 

 could have said would have shown my friend the measure 

 of his error. To him the success of his proceeding was 

 clear; he had worked his diabolical nets that was the 

 cause : there was no disease that was the effect. It 

 reminded me of the evidence of a Scottish witness before 

 a select committee on the salmon laws. Asked by the 



