48 MOSTLY ABOUT TROUT 



there could have been a stake or other obstruc- 

 tion in the water just there, but was told quietly 

 there were none, and, by way of comment, 

 that the salmon taken in that pool at that time 

 of the year usually weighed about 30 Ib. There 

 is no need to recall any more of that day's 

 experience ! 



There is a certain Mecca of salmon-fishers 

 in early spring, a much smaller river than the 

 Dee, on the east coast of Sutherland. Several 

 times have I been bidden there, and never will 

 those experiences be forgotten. First, the 

 anticipation. It would take a whole book to 

 describe that alone, if I described it fully. 

 Then the journey. Such a journey ! The 

 dinner at Euston, the friendly train-conductors, 

 one of whom I knew as a kindred spirit in 

 fishing lore. The non-stop run to Rugby, the 

 longing for sleep to come, with the promise 

 of waking up in the wonderful air that 

 makes Scotsmen what they are, the sleepy 

 realization of achievement at the sound of 

 " Car-r-stair-r-rs " being called on a platform 

 in the night, the vast emptiness of Perth 

 station, the sleep afterwards, with the deter- 

 mination to shave while the railway line is 

 still mounting the gradient, so as to avoid 

 cutting oneself severely as the speed increases 



