TROUT AND SALMON FISHING. 343 



and irregular, and in some parts the current very strong, 

 care must be taken not to make a false step or stumble, 

 as fatal results might be the consequence. I should advise 

 the constant use of the handle of your landing-net to feel 

 and guide your steps, on no account permitting the excite- 

 ment of hooking a large fish to make you lose your head. 



A couple of hundred yards beneath the dam is a splendid 

 pool, difficult to fish and difficult of access, but a trial will 

 be amply rewarded. Scarcely in the memory of a long 

 fishing career have we ever enjoyed such a couple of hours' 

 sport as fell to our luck the first time we wetted a line 

 upon its well-stocked surface. On the first cast not one 

 but half a dozen of the spotted beauties rushed to the sur- 

 face, so that we were ultimately compelled to reduce the 

 number of flies we were using to a solitary specimen. For 

 two hours we confined ourselves to this pool, with the sim- 

 ple change of altering situation or cast, and even then only 

 desisted, not from want of fish but for fear the constant 

 strain would wear out the rod. On this occasion the re- 

 sults were nearly four dozen, and none under half a pound, 

 many reaching as high as three and even three and a half. 

 The guide, whom I have previously mentioned, was my 

 companion, and most satisfactorily he did his work, al- 

 though on many occasions he was compelled to wade up 

 to his middle ; in fact, I never met a more obliging person, 

 or one more fearless in entering water, or better skilled in 

 handling a landing-net. 



Another day's sport I will quote more minutely, as an- 

 other part of the river was the scene of operations. With- 

 in an hour and a half I had killed eleven fish, averaging two 

 and a quarter pounds, when suddenly they stopped rising, 

 and all my skill was wasted, for I could not raise a fin. 

 This striking peculiarity in both trout and salmon fish- 

 ing, which no fisherman can fail to have observed, I am un- 



