68 MARVELS OF FISH LIFE 
which will be given later, and the other a thirty-pound 
kelt, taken on the Dee. 
There had been a spate, and the river was too full 
for successful fishing. After a tiring day, I was fishing 
out the last pool on the water, and as my fly swept 
round to within two feet of the bank, the line suddenly 
appeared to be checked. So near the bank, I thought 
the fly must have caught on a stone, but when I raised 
the point of the rod, to my utter surprise the line 
sereeched out off the reel into mid-stream, and what 
appeared to be a mountain of silver leapt into the air. 
I rapidly scrambled up the steep slope behind, and there 
was the fish, some eighty yards away, ploughing through 
the raging current like a motor-boat, with the line 
whistling in the gale. Not even a well-mended kelt can 
stand a strain of this sort for long, and suddenly she 
turned tail and shot down-stream. Now, tearing after 
her, twice I fell on the slippery bank, and on one of 
these occasions the gillie saved the situation by quickly 
snatching up the rod, and following the fish until I was 
able to catch him up. The fish was a very demon, and 
at first it appeared as if her destination would be nothing 
short of Aberdeen, some twelve miles down the river! 
when suddenly she switched off into slack water just 
at the head of a raging rapid, where it would have been 
impossible to follow. It was not long now before we 
had her well in hand, and not till then did I suspect 
that it was a kelt, though, of course, my knowing gillie 
knew it all the time! The fish had to be brought to a 
