EXAGGERATIONS. 273 



" I'm off, good bye and good luck to you," the Doctor said. 



" No, not yet ; come here and do what I ask. Do you see that tall 

 foxglove ? Go out into the field and make your way to it inch by inch 

 without shaking the ground, peep through the foliage and tell me exactly 

 where this fly goes." 



I had mounted a tiny " Blue Boyne " dressed with the more sombre 

 Blue Rock. 



" Shall I tell you from there or come back ? " 



" From there. You needn't shout, and don't move." 



" Oh, I can see it as plainly as possible, and the Salmon, too what 

 a lovely fish ! The fly is three yards in front of him." 



" Capital ; now look out, but don't move a muscle." 



I then made a short but rather sharp snatch of the rod, and a 

 tremendous splash and the winch " busy " told its own tale. Twenty 

 minutes later the weeds causing a slight delay the Doctor on all fours 

 had his chance, but "missed," for truth to tell, he drew the gaff as gently 

 as a German waiter a fork under a tender sardine. But on the second 

 venture, after a dose of eloquence for the " specific complaint," the 

 eminent authority on pulses gaffed the fish through and through, and in 

 one motion flung the lot on the bank some feet from the water. 



"Ah," observed Doctor L "it may be said of flies as of ladies 



and gentlemen ' contrasts make more intimate unions.' But why have 

 I not seen these things before? " 



" Because you look at Salmon-fishing with the trained eye of a 

 medical man, we with the trained eyes of Fishermen." 



Only the other day, having an exceptional opportunity of seeing the 

 movements of a fish under treatment, I reduced to demonstration the 

 effect of one of these overdressed flies in the Wester Elchies wa'ter. My 

 friend J. C. H. I wish I dared tell of our many enjoyable outings 

 together wishing to see the experiment tried, asked me to put an 

 " exaggeration" before a fish in sight. The Salmon darted towards the fly 

 at ouce. So far the plan succeeded, but the current went so slowly that, 

 as I predicted, to catch the fish would be an impossibility ; in fact, fly 

 No. 2 scarcely supporting itself in the water did not reach the place. 



I could fill pages with incidents relating to this the most novel and 



T 



