8 EASY-CHAIR MEMORIES 



worst; it rained without intermission most of 

 the day, brightening up in the evening. I 

 determined to explore the big river in the 

 immediate neighbourhood. Hitherto I had 

 rather despised it as a river for fly fishing 

 for trout, but I was told by a gentleman 

 whom I met by the riverside, himself a salmon 

 fisher and sportsman in general, that there 

 was some very good trout fishing to be had 

 close at hand and free; as for salmon fishing 

 there was none to be had for love or money. 

 I did not want salmon fishing, so that did 

 not matter. The gentleman, evidently a mili- 

 tary man, was good enough to walk down 

 and show me the point where the free fishing 

 began and where it ended perhaps a hundred 

 yards ; " beyond that point," said he, " there 

 are lots of fish chub, trout, and dace but 

 you must get permission from a person in 

 the town," whom he named. I rushed off 

 promptly to the person in the town, who, for 

 a trifling consideration, told me I was free 

 to fish in this protected water, but he did 

 not tell me, and it never occurred to me to 

 ask him, how I was to get at this water. It 

 seemed so easy to get from the free ground 



