RRUKEN AU FISHING. 265 



the king, "you are like my friend Mr. C (quoting the 



name of a late high Tory English Member of Parliament) ; he 

 was very fond of fishing, but I think he would rather have 

 had O'Connell on his hook than all the fish in the river." 



It ended, however, in his graciously granting us permission 

 to fish as long and as much as we pleased, with which we 

 departed, much gratified by his Majesty's kindness and con- 

 descension, if not edified by his moral and political opinions, 

 to prepare the little tackle we had for a campaign that 

 promised to give ample work for its powers of endurance. 



We had merely a few common flies, such as several 

 varieties of the palmer, cock-a-bundy, March-brown, &c. ; 

 and, by way of trial (we were then in the month of July), I 

 fitted three of different kinds on my casting-line. Never shall 

 I forget my first cast ! It was certainly in a very tempting 

 spot, beneath a beautiful fall near the bridge. My line was 

 hardly in the water when whiz went the reel, as though I 

 had hooked a lOlb. salmon. Exactly the same thing occurred 

 to my friend, who was fishing on the other side of the 

 stream. Upon checking the line, and reeling up, after the 

 first burst, I found I had hooked a fish upon each fly ; and, as 

 far as I could make out, they consisted of two grayling and 

 a trout, averaging at least a pound each. My casting-line, 

 however, which was old and fine, broke very near the top, 

 and left me with only one of my three captives, which I 

 managed to land, and he turned out to be a fine, well-fed 

 grayling of more than a pound weight. My friend had also 

 lost all his fish by a similar accident. It was evident that 

 no delicacy need be observed with such gluttons as these, 

 and that fine tackle and a variety of flies was quite thrown 

 away upon them. Accordingly, we selected the strongest 

 gut we possessed for our casting-lines, and the coarsest and 

 largest flies, of which we used only one, and between us, in a 

 couple of hours, killed upwards of 701b. weight of trout and 



