AN AUTUMN FISHING 171 



most coloured waters ; but he maintains 

 that it is not so much the fly that counts, 

 but the length of time it is fished under 

 water. Sooner or later will come the 

 moment when the salmon " wakes up,'' and 

 then it will take anything which happens 

 to be bobbing above its nose. His chief 

 injunction, however, is to fish deep, and 

 this of necessity implies deliberation in 

 casting and the slow play of the fly across 

 and through the current. A well- sunk 

 fly can move a " roused " salmon from the 

 bottom, whereas a surface fly, however 

 alluringly it may be " worked," will 

 in general leave the fish cold and unin- 

 terested. 



I call to mind the first time, now many 

 years ago, that Jean Pierre and I together 

 fished for salmon. Earlier lessons had 

 been given along the rough-gi'own lawn 

 and from the bank at the foot of the curd's 

 garden. It was here, too, that I first 

 learned how to extricate a fly which had 

 become fast among some sunken brush- 

 wood in the middle of the river. An old 

 fisherman's dodge this, yet of such value 

 in the snagged and untended waters of 



