122 MOSTLY ABOUT TROUT 



bubbles, and of sea-trout in the deep pools 

 and in the rapid runs. Above all, of the pure 

 and keen air coming up the strath or over the 

 moors and lochs, fresh, like the trout, from 

 the sea. 



There is something about the play of a sea- 

 trout that you get in no other form of fishing 

 with the fly. No one who has seen them 

 shooting up a high fall, which salmon after 

 salmon has failed to negotiate, can fail to 

 marvel at the tremendous energy and muscular 

 power bottled up in their shapely forms. You 

 get the full benefit of that energy when you 

 hook one on a fly. But let us put off the 

 memory of such struggles till we get to the 

 recital of the landing of a big one, not " fresh- 

 run " but, better than that, not even run at 

 all, still in the sea w r ater of a Shetland voe. 

 They are then in the full vigour of their life 

 in the sea, of which element we are tempted 

 to believe the tale that it is the mother of all 

 living things in this planet. Charles Kingsley, 

 from whose writings it is so difficult to avoid 

 quoting in a book on fishing, seems to have 

 held that view. " Tom," the Water-Baby, when 

 the fresh river water turned salt all round him 

 in the mouth of the estuary, " felt as strong, 

 and light, and fresh, as if his veins had run 



