146 A SCOTTISH FLY-FISHER 



fish were a painful disappointment. Lusty and power- 

 ful as they looked, they put up no fight ; their energy 

 was spent in one short rush, and thereafter, persuaded 

 by the pliant reed, they came to the bank with a meek- 

 ness surpassing that of the lamb to the slaughter. 

 They bowed to the will of Fate with a resignation 

 exasperating to the angler in search of a sensation. 

 Fat and, apparently, scant of breath like Hamlet, they 

 seemed incapable of prolonged or violent exertion. Of 

 the five, only one made any display of vigour and ac- 

 tivity, and as, on finding his liberty restricted, he sprang 

 into the air. he appeared a very salmon. At sight of 

 him my heart leapt, and I looked forward to an anxious 

 and exciting time, but he was quick as the others to 

 recognise his destiny, and all too- soon he lay stretched 

 upon the shingle by the water's edge, a much less noble 

 fish than fancy — and the fog — had pictured him. 



As a source of pleasurable excitement to the angler, 

 the fish were almost valueless, but in their beauty they 

 were not unworthy of his quest. They were all of a 

 size, from one and a half to two pounds in weight, and 

 their presence in a water so unlikely was not easily 

 explained. To the unscientific fisherman, at least, the 

 problem of their food supply was quite beyond solution, 

 though the entomologist might have found the explana- 



