CH. VI.] “LOOK OUT FOR SQUALLS.” 91 
change from dark to light, or the reverse, yet, 
if he have once been touched, he will but rarely 
come again the same day. I suspect they must 
be fairly taken by surprise, and so puzzled by the 
power thus mysteriously brought to bear on them, 
as to be at first unable to make out what is the 
matter, and what they had better do under the 
circumstances. i 
It must be admitted, however, that when they 
have once made up their minds as to a course of 
action, they do not lose much time. in carrying 
it out; and then is the time when the fisherman 
must “look out for squalls.’ For this reason, 
however passive and tractable a fish may appear, 
he should remain well on his guard, and ready on 
the instant to adapt himself to the vagaries of the 
fish, who, if a good one, will soon show him that 
there is plenty of “life in the old dog yet.” 
Though fully aware of this peculiarity in 
Salmon, yet I very nearly lost one last season, 
(1859), owing to it, under rather peculiar circum- 
stances ; it being certainly more attributable to 
luck than my own cunning that I ultimately suc- 
ceeded in landing him. 
I was fishing from a boat a loch in Ross-shire, 
on a very stormy day, so rough indeed that it was 
