SEA-TROUT IN THE SHETLANDS 133 



sea-trout, and went back to the old method 

 of chucking and chancing it by the former 

 unsuccessful method, keeping up our keenness, 

 but with little hope of another such chance. 

 Well, it is always worth while to stick it in 

 sport, as it is in everything else. Luck may 

 change. On this occasion it did. The sea was 

 still as calm as the proverbial mill-pond ; we 

 had been watching the edges of the banks of 

 brown seaweed for more rises without result. 

 Then I happened to look in another direction 

 and saw distinctly another boil, not near the 

 rocks, but well out in the little bay. It was 

 difficult to fix the exact spot on the face of 

 the water ; we could get the direction of an 

 object on shore to steer by, but the difficulty 

 lay in deciding how far off the fish had risen, 

 after all indications had disappeared from the 

 surface. Then, again, it was some way off, 

 and there was some chance of the trout having 

 moved if we did not row hard to the place, and 

 a certainty of his being put to flight if we did 

 row hard, thereby rattling the rowlocks and 

 making a wave on the surface. I do not know, 

 by the way, whether such a wave affects trout 

 in the sea as it does in a pool in a river, but 

 it was enough to think that it did. We effected 

 a compromise, rowing as fast as we could, 



