366 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



Ayrshire hills. We shall have him yet if we wait till mid- 

 night, thought I, as villager after villager rushed down from 

 Colmonell to see the game played out. Being the only one of 

 the group who knew the slender bond which united the fisher- 

 man with his fish, I watched the struggle with greater anxiety 

 than any present, not excepting the angler himself. 



Hour after hour passed away, but " Macfarlane's lamp " 

 was bright in the sky, shedding full light on the river for the 

 working of the salmon. It was nearly ten o'clock at night 

 before the noble fellow began to show symptoms of yielding. 

 " Bring a lantern, Sandy, as he can never be gaffed by moon- 

 light." Sandy was soon ready and eager with light and steel. 

 The salmon, however, though nearly spent, refused to come 

 within reach of his weapon, and kept lashing the water into 

 foam on the opposite shore. Quick as thought, Sandy dashed 

 across the black stream and reached the fish before he sank. 

 Then poising the lantern for a second, up to his waist in the 

 water, he struck his victim with deadly determination a 

 pause ensued the light hissed in the river, and was extin- 

 guished. Then followed a severe unseen struggle under the 

 darkened bank, when Sandy, with a grip like a bull-dog, 

 dripping from head to foot, crawled from the deep, shouting, 

 " I ha'e him noo ! " 



The confident predictions that he was body-hooked, hazarded 

 by the spectators on account of his strong play, were soon 

 falsified, for he was found to be beautifully fixed by the 

 tongue. His weight was nearly 25 lb., proving the finest fish 

 of the season landed by the rod on the Stinchar. Thus to 

 find he was right, was a triumph to the river-watcher, who 

 had always firmly maintained that my previous monster had 

 been hooked by the mouth. 



The latter, and another of much smaller size, were all which 

 were lost to our rods after being hooked during 1871. Re- 

 ports reached us every fishing day, however, both up and down 

 the river, of fish breaking their hold and escaping. Consider- 



