168 SALMON- SPEARING 



knickerbockers, master and man alike. And now 

 they were off, and making down the " brae " with 

 the long dropping action which marks the practical 

 mountaineer, being greeted as they passed the 

 kennels by the most dismal howling from the dogs, 

 who evidently did not comprehend that spears were 

 not guns, and that there were occasions, such as 

 salmon-spearing, on which their services might be 

 dispensed with, and who further interpreted the 

 volley of mingled Gaelic and Sassenach ejaculations 

 hurled at them as a command to increase their note 

 from forte to fortissimo, a proceeding accordingly 

 executed with the most painful exactness which the 

 canine intellect could suggest. 



A short half-hour's walk, and the hollow moaning 

 of a waterfall told of the journey's end. Brushing 

 through a small birch-wood that clothed the high 

 banks of the stream, our party stood on the edge of 

 a sheer rock about thirty feet high, and, looking 

 down on the scene of their intended operations, 

 assigned to each his post and duty. A long, narrow, 

 black pool, shallowing towards the tail into a rush- 

 ing stream, dashing madly against the boulders 

 scattered at random in its course ; the rocks rising 

 steep and bare on either side, but fringed on their 

 summits with the drooping birch -trees and over- 

 hanging heather nestling round the delicate little 



