ANE CDOTE OF THE LA TE JOHN BRIGHT 445 



possession of it by sending the gillie to a point 

 where he can turn the fish by stoning it, for it will 

 on such occasions generally return to the spot where it 

 was hooked, and the gillie can seize the rod when it 

 passes him, and follow the fish till the angler can get 

 round or over the difticukies offered by the bank, etc. 



The late Mr. John Bright, when receiving his first 

 lesson in salmon-fishing from the grandfather of the 

 present Lord Lovat, on the Groam Pool, on the Beauly, 

 had a very narrow escape of being drowned. 



As I have said, Lord Lovat always took the greatest 

 pleasure in instructing his friends in sporting matters. 

 I never knew anyone able to throw a salmon-line better 

 or more lightly, for his hands and the balance of his 

 rod were perfection ; and I have to thank him for 

 having given me my first lesson in hooking and land- 

 ing a salmon, and it was at the very spot, too, where 

 John Bright came to grief. Lord Lovat always suc- 

 ceeded in getting a beginner to hook a fish either 

 under or close to the bank at the head of the Groam 

 Pool, as anyone, by merely dropping the fly at his feet 

 when the water is at a certain height in the summer, 

 is almost certain to hook a fish. I have heard of as 

 many as 750 grilse and salmon being taken out of 

 this pool in three hauls of the net, after it had been 

 fished all day by three rods, neither of whom suc- 

 ceeded in getting a single rise, and who, as they had 

 not seen as much as a fin all the day, had expressed 

 their belief to the netters that there was not a fish 

 in it. 



It is a well-recognised fact that the more fish there 

 are in a pool, where the bottom is smooth and devoid 

 of rocks or stones, the more difficult it is to induce 



