who had taken the other
side of the water, were in high spirits. On the lawn in front of the
house there lay a fish of over 30 lb., another of 29 lb., and two
smaller ones.

The angler who had caught them naturally thought that with a record of
four fish weighing 96 lbs. in a day, and that his first day, too, and
the fish all caught with the fly, he was in for an uncommonly good
thing. But the river, instead of improving, afterwards got worse, and
to the time of our leaving the party had had indifferent sport after
that auspicious beginning. The sight of the big fellows lying white
and shapely on the grass in front of the chalet taught me that I might
have driven up two or three hours earlier, but there was still reason
to suppose that there might be a salmon left for me. I began by
hooking and playing in the first pool a small red fish of, I should
say, 7 lb., which did me the honour of making a graceful twirl when I
had, as I supposed, tired him out; with a flutter of his tail, he
sheered off with contemptuous slowness under my very nose into the
deeps again. An hour later I got a similar fish, small and red (just
under 7 lb.), which did not escape. By and by, with a full-sized
Durham Ranger, I had an affair of the good old sort; it was a
well-sustained contest after I had been landed on the farther shore,
terminated by the landing of a bright, handsome salmon of 25 lb. A
young gentleman on the same side, fishing from the boat with a prawn,
hooked and brought to the top, while I was playing mine, a fish of
equal size apparently, but it got off, leaving him still the
consolation of an 18-lb. fish and another smaller, which lay in his
boat.

One of the most curious days in the way of weather was yesterday. It
was my turn to fish the salmon water, and I did fish it, hard and
honestly, but came ashore with a clean boat. H., on the same day, did
splendidly with the sea trout in his own water, making a bag of close
upon 40 lb. There was a gale blowing in the morning; rain of course
was falling, but the curiosity of the day was an intermittent sirocco,
which came up the valley like blasts from a fiery furnace. The wind
was so overpowering on my salmon reaches that it was hardly possible
either to hold the boat or to get out line. But here is a summons to
dinner, and I have only time to add that on one day last week I had a
very pretty half day with the sea trout, getting six fish, which
weighed 29 lb., and th