A SPRING WEEK IN THE WEST HIGHLANDS. 289 



lend a rod or fly, as they of course wished to give the river a 

 day's rest. I was not, therefore, surprised when M'Mcol made 

 his appearance at one, with the excuse that he had to tie some 



small flies for Mr . Opposition only put me upon my 



mettle. I borrowed an old rod from the waiter, while the 

 landlord, by some secret influence, procured three of the most 

 approved salmon-flies, and engaged to send a post-boy who 

 knew the casts. 



Being thus pretty well equipped, I started about three for 

 the Falls of the Orchy. My boy no contemptible bait-fisher 

 for trout begged hard to accompany me, as he had never 

 seen a salmon killed. 



At the tail of the lowest pool I had the good hap to hook 

 a fish. As I was far from placing implicit reliance on the 

 waiter's tackle, it took some time to tame him ; and when I 

 fairly had him under my thumb, where was the gaff? The 

 beach, however, was good, and the post-boy handy, so we soon 

 extracted a very fine eleven-pound salmon. The next pool 

 was a long, black, whirling linn, but we fished it blank ; not 

 a break or boil from top to bottom. We now came to a 

 dangerous but very good cast. It was also deep and black, 

 full of sunk rocks ; and, should I hook a fish, it would soon 

 show what the tackle was made of. At the very spot where I 

 expected, up he came ; and now was the tug of war the fish 

 fighting for the rocks, and I doing my best to keep him clear 

 of them, knowing that if he effected his purpose there was 

 every chance of being cut. My tackle proved excellent; I 

 fairly foiled him, and at last wore him away from the perilous 

 rocks. The post-boy's hands again acted gaff, and brought to 

 the bank a noble fifteen-pounder. 



I was now quite satisfied, and despatched the ready-handed 

 son of the whip for our car, which was put up opposite the 

 place where I killed the first fish. At the very foot of this 

 pool part of the stream flows near the opposite bank. More 

 for the sake of instructing my boy in the mystery of throwing 



T 



