120 AMID THE HIGH HILLS 
for the fact that the hook had kept its hold so 
well. " Now then, Sandy," I said, as I got out 
my flask, " if any man ever deserved a drop of 
good whisky, you do." " Shlainte " (Gaelic 
for " Your good health "), said Sandy. " It was 
a grand fight, sir ; I've never seen a better." 
" How long do you think you were playing 
him ? " said my brother. " Somewhere about an 
hour, I should think," I replied. " Four hours 
and six minutes," he said. " I looked at my 
watch when you hooked him, and it was then 
just a minute or two before half-past one ; and I 
looked at my watch when Sandy gaffed him — it 
was then twenty-five minutes to six. I counted 
the number of times the fish jumped, and it 
was seventeen. I don't suppose you noticed it," 
he added, " but there was a cart going off with 
peats, near the loch, soon after you began to play 
the fish, and it came back again not long ago." 
We heard afterwards that the men in the cart 
thought I was playing another fish when they 
passed us on their return journey. 
The light was going as we pushed the boat out 
again. I handed the salmon rod to my brother, 
and he began to fish from the stern of the boat, 
while I fished again from the bow with the trout 
