250 SALMON AND TROUT. 



sport, will be found as a rule ready to offer him good advice if 

 he will take it ; and he may soon learn the rudiments of the 

 art. He will have many opportunities of losing his temper, and 

 will find out that the best thing he can do is to keep it. Fish- 

 ing in club or open water is a series of * sells ' from morning to 

 night ; all sorts of dodges are resorted to to attain the desired 

 end, ' Sport for self.' I am reminded of the first sentence in 

 the daily prayer of a certain Scotchman, which ran as follows : 

 ' Gude Lord, tak' every thing awa' frae every mon, and gie it a' 

 to me ;' and this is what many salmon fishermen feel in their 

 hearts as far as sport is concerned. I am happy to say, 

 however, that such ' fish grabbers ' are exceptions. A salmon 

 fisherman, as a rule, is always good company and a jovial 

 fellow ; he is always ready to give a helping hand to a brother 

 fisherman, and however much his temper may have been tried 

 during the day it is generally all over at dinner-time, and by 

 the time he goes to bed after a convivial glass or two with 

 his friendly rivals, he has quite forgotten his ill-luck, deter- 

 mined to be up and doing next day. About two years ago I 

 was very cleverly done out of a good pool when fishing in a 

 club water. In consequence of the early risers being in the 

 habit of fishing all the pools over every morning before the hour 

 when reasonable men came out, a rule was made that no fishing 

 should commence before eight o'clock ; consequently the early 

 risers were always on the water long before this time waiting 

 at their favourite pools, watch in hand, ready to commence 

 operations the moment the clock struck. 



Not being an early riser, I drove down one morning on the 

 left bank of the river to where there were three celebrated 

 pools almost running into each other, and one of which I hoped 

 to secure. The road I travelled came all of a sudden in sight 

 of the two upper pools, lying nearly parallel to them at a short 

 distance off; these were fished from the left bank, but the lowest 

 of the three pools was fished from the right bank, and the river 

 had to be crossed at the tail of the middle pool, in a boat, to 

 be able to get at it. 



