242 OCTOBER 



soon yielded up the ghost a brown fish of ten 

 pounds. I hooked three others in the same pool, 

 and landed two of them fourteen pounds and ten 

 pounds all in little more than half-an-hour. 

 Thinks I to myself, I'm in for a big thing. Six 

 miles of beautiful water lay below me, without 

 another rod on it, for the rest of the party were 

 driving grouse. My fish were not beauties to be 

 sure, for one was a red kipper, and the other two 

 were dark baggits ; but, after all, they were salmon, 

 and I observed airily to my gillie that his back was 

 likely to be sore before night. Still that sickly air 

 of incredulity I could have shaken the fellow ! 



I was to learn the meaning of it. Hour after 

 hour I thrashed a series of the most enchanting pools 

 and streams that fond fisher could imagine ; dark- 

 ness overtook us before we were half-way down to 

 our limit, and one uncertain touch in the rapid run 

 at Cuilachan was the only sign of a fish that was 

 vouchsafed to me. Next day matters were worse. 

 The river was in better order, but in the course of 

 eight hours steady fishing I did not get a single rise. 



That cured me of all hankering after the Find- 

 horn. On the third morning early, I started across 

 the hills for the Nairn, an insignificant stream com- 



