INTRODUCTION xix 



wards, that the ouananiche seized the bait. The fish had 

 in all probability in most instances been following it for 

 some way, for, as from long practice 1 was able to cast a 

 very long line, I often nearly reached a cliff on the far- 

 ther shore. But the point where it was seized was always 

 the same just after the turn, when hanging at the tail 

 of the silent, heavy water just above the broken rapid, 

 and as the minnow was beginning to come up the stream 

 again. "What a glorious afternoon we had of it that day ! 

 I killed thirteen ouananiche, weighing fifty-eight pounds, 

 and lost at least thirteen more ; and grand sport they 

 gave. In weight they varied from one three-pounder to 

 one six-pounder. All the rest were from three and a half 

 to five and a half pounds in weight. I still preserve in 

 my rod-case a stick upon which that day Albert Patter- 

 son amused himself by carving the weights, the name of 

 the river, my own name, and the number of fish captured, 

 which stick is often admired by the Highland gillies. 



From the observations I took of the behavior of the 

 fish on that particular afternoon, my previous opinion 

 that the ouananiche was a salmon-trout and not a salmon 

 was confirmed. Except in one case, that of a three and 

 a half pounder, a fish which gave a splendid run in the 

 smooth water, and in another, where a fish, getting into 

 the heavy broken water, had no choice but to run down 

 the rapid, all of the fish hooked confined themselves 

 chiefly to jumping, as is the way with all the varieties of 

 sea-trout, be they known as whitling, sewen, salmon-peel, 

 truff, or merely salmon - trout, which we catch in the 

 British Islands from the northernmost island of the 

 Shetland group down to the southernmost extremity of 

 Cornwall. Now, as all salmon fishers know, the Salmo 

 solar may jump occasionally, and, in fact, unless an un- 

 usually heavy fish, will throw himself out of the water 



