SEA-TROUT IN THE SHETLANDS 127 



of that day to me ; so it does of a holiday spent 

 in sea-trout fishing in the Shetland Islands 

 at which subject, after these many digressions, 

 we at last arrive. 



That summer had been one of great heat 

 and of hard, strenuous work, with but short 

 intervals for rest and none for recreation. Pack- 

 ing up, even for a holiday, seemed an effort, 

 and a third-class railway journey in a crowded 

 carriage, with several changes, was, if possible, 

 to be avoided. That was easily done, by going 

 by sea from the Thames to Aberdeen, a most 

 restful proceeding in calm weather, and there 

 changing into the smaller vessel bound for the 

 Orkneys and Shetlands, then rarely heard of 

 by the public, but now familiar, at least on the 

 map, to all students of the long watch kept 

 over us by the British (helped later by the 

 American) Navy in the Great War. My com- 

 panion on that holiday was none less than the 

 first Commander-in-Chief of our sea forces in 

 that war, who, at that time, had never had an 

 opportunity of adding fly-fishing to his other 

 strenuous recreations. I had been attracted 

 to the Shetland Islands by a hotel advertise- 

 ment holding out hopes of an average of thirty 

 pounds' weight of sea-trout in a day, taken 

 on the fly, in lochs within range of the hotel. 



