92 AN UNEXPECTED PRIZE. [PART I. 
quite as much as two men could do to keep her 
“head to wind,’ and had cast between two 
rocks lying at some little distance from the shore, 
and forming a favourite harbour for Salmon, when 
amidst the breakers (as they might be well called) 
I detected a slight rise. The loch was full of 
small brown Trout, which always seemed most 
numerous and annoying at a Salmon-cast, and I 
rather thought it was one of these. Not being 
quite sure however, I struck, when, feeling just 
about as much resistance as one of them would 
have offered, and the Gillie next me, who was on 
the look-out, and whose eyes were much sharper 
than mine, at the same time saying, “Oh! its just 
a Brownie, Sir,” I naturally concluded such must 
be the case, and, throwing my rod over my 
shoulder, laid hold of the line and drew it in by 
hand, as the quickest way of getting rid of the 
little brute. The line came in without the slightest 
strain upon it greater than a Brownie would have 
caused, and it was not until I had got the fish 
close to the boat and within three or four feet of 
my hand, that I had the slightest suspicion I had 
on anything heavier. Suddenly, however, I then 
felt that it was something of more than Brownie- 
weight, and had only just time, after assuring my- 
