98 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING 



Though a little mortified, I was not sorry to get 

 him to this point ; for I knew I could overwhelm 

 him with facts, and the more diffidently I conducted 

 myself the more complete would be my triumph. 

 So laying down my pet rod on the channel, I very 

 deliberately took out my two-pounder, as a feeler. 

 He looked particularly well ; for I had tied up his 

 mouth, that he might keep his shape, and moistened 

 him, as I before said, with soaked fern to preserve 

 his colour. I fear I looked a little elate on the occa- 

 sion ; assuredly I felt so. 



' There's a fine fish now a perfect beauty ! " 



" Houte-toute ! that's no fish ava." 



" No fish, man ! What the deuce is it, then ? Is 

 it a rabbit, or a wild duck, or a water-rat ? ' 



' Ye are joost gin daft. Do ye no ken a troot 

 when ye see it ? ' 



I could make nothing of this answer, for I thought 

 that a trout was a fish ;* but it seems I was mis- 

 taken. However, I saw the envy of the man ; so I 

 determined to inflict him with a settler at once. For 

 this purpose I inveigled him to where my five- 

 pounder was deposited ; then kneeling down, and 

 proudly removing the bracken I had placed over 

 him, there lay the monster most manifest, extended 

 in all his glory. The light the eye of the landscape 

 before whose brilliant sides Runjeet Sing's dia- 

 mond, called " the mountain of light," would sink 

 into the deep obscure ; dazzled with the magnifi- 



* Salmon, salmon trout, and bull trout alone, are called fish in 

 the Tweed. If a Scotchman means to try for trout, he does not 

 say " I am going a, fishing," but " I am going a fronting." 



