36 FISHING GOSSIP. 
bank, eight splendid grilse from 7Ibs. to 10Ibs. each, 
and might have taken we do not know how many 
more, but that an accident put an end to his fishing 
for the time. The whole affair was over in less than 
two hours. 
Now suppose such a piece of luck happening un- 
expectedly to a young Englishman, not overburdened 
with cash, who had gone to the Highlands for a 
month’s excursion, —why, a thousand pounds in his 
pocket would not be equivalent to the gratification ; 
years would not dim the recollection of it, his heart 
would beat warmly to the North every time he spoke 
of it ; and, let us add, per contra, it might cost him a 
good many thousands before he saw the end.of it; 
for, if fortune proved prosperous, a salmon river 
would never be far distant from the scene of his 
recreation. Clipping a salmon is like “taking the 
shilling ;” it enlists you for life. Of course one does 
not take eight “fish ”—Scotticé for salmon or grilse 
—every two hours one wields a rod; but it is hard 
to see the long swirling pools of a Highland river 
unoccupied day after day when the fish are taking, 
and when it would do no perceptible harm to the sport 
of the lessee if a tourist had leave to try his luck in 
some of the pools. Of the eight fish that we refer to, 
probably not one would have ‘been in the same pool 
next morning, and they were but a small part of' the 
shoal brought up by one tide to replenish the river, 
