i8o How I Became a Sportsmax. 



except for the killing trout in such an in- 

 glorious fashion ; but the true fact of the case 

 was, the owner was no fisherman, but was very- 

 fond of the fun of netting, besides which, he 

 was a hearty good fellow, and liked to assemble 

 a party of kindred friends, and make a day 

 of it, and we did too. We used to assemble, 

 six or seven of us, about eleven o'clock ; the 

 stream was not far oiF, so we set to work 

 at once ; but it must be told in all fairness, 

 that it was so overgrown with bushes and 

 brambles that it was almost impossible to fish 

 it in any way with a rod and line. I have 

 seen one man in my day, and only one, who 

 would have thrown a fly there, and that was 

 old David Jones of Ross, whose equal I have 

 yet to see. The stream was shallow nearly all 

 the way up, and the flew nets were put in 

 about fifty yards apart, and the stream was 

 well beaten in between. There were a few 

 deep holes, in which the casting-net was used? 

 where generally a good fish was hauled out. 

 There was sure during the day (particularly 

 after lunch) to be a little rough horse-play 

 going on, and one day one of the party 

 thought he should like to try a throw with 



