98 



and technical explanation." 



" Very well, they are often jumping at the tail, but I am told that 

 a fly there is next to useless ; at any rate, when they do come at one, 

 all my friends, with the exception of one old hand, let them get away." 



" Well, I am pretty sure I could get them to come when they had 

 not been scared beforehand, but the job is to hook them, and after 

 that to liold them. If a fellow gets hold of one and it goes up stream 

 — it will want a lot of coaxing to do that — the fish is doomed, but if 

 it goes down stream, which is a much more likely alternative, his 

 tackle is doomed, as the seedling alders there prohibit all pursuit." 



" Oh, the alders shall be cut to the ground within a day or two." 



As a fine fish had been lost through them some few days 

 previously, this decision of his lordship was most acceptable, and was 

 about to be so acknowledged, when the hero of the day exclaimed, 

 with convincing animation, that " four feet should be left standing to 

 form a screen for your friends during the coming grilse season." 



" Now," said the Laird in dignified solidity, " let us see the way 

 you fight the battle out yourself, for the scheme you alluded to must 

 be well worth witnessing." 



Familiar with the long-sought secret of stopping a runaway fish 

 by giving him line, the old campaigner, who had waited patiently for 

 a bright interval, eventually hooked and managed a fish witlr 

 wonderful accuracy. He first had to half-distance the rapid, the 

 sloping character of which rendered it rather difficult to wade. At the 

 farther corner of the Slack he then dropped his lightly dressed 

 " Silver Grey," and in an instant demonstrated the operation indis- 

 pensable for keeping the fly up and going — a mechanical act, the 

 successful execution of which marks more than could anj'thing else, 



