ii6 ANGLING SKETCHES 



Why should I not take a farewell cast, alone, of 

 course? I always disliked the attendance of a 

 gillie. I took my salmon rod out of its case, 

 rigged it up, and started for the stream, which 

 flowed within a couple of hundred yards of my 

 quarters. There it raced under the ash tree, a 

 pale delicate brown, perhaps a little thing too 

 coloured. I therefore put on a large Silver Doctor, 

 and began steadily fishing down the ash-tree cast. 

 What if I should wipe Dick's eye, I thought, when, 

 just where the rough and smooth water meet, 

 there boiled up a head and shoulders such as I 

 had never seen on any fish. My heart leaped and 

 stood still, but there came no sensation from the 

 rod, and I finished the cast, my knees actually 

 trembling beneath me. Then I gently lifted the 

 line, and very elaborately tested every link of the 

 powerful casting-line. Then I gave him ten 

 minutes by my watch ; next, with unspeakable 

 emotion, I stepped into the stream and repeated 

 the cast. Just at the same spot he came up again ; 

 the huge rod bent like a switch, and the salmon 

 rushed straight down the pool, as if he meant to 



