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was in highest flood and very milky from the melting of the glacier which it drains. I used six-ply gut, and felt no certainty then that I should not be broken. To gaff a fish the gaffer had to wade into this fearful torrent, and sometimes his life appeared to be more in danger than the fish's. In a deep backwater called the Prawn Hole-where the 68-pounder was killed I hooked, on a prawn, a fish about 40 lb. weight. He was a very strong fish, and after a terrific rush across the main river into a small pool opposite, he went down stream about a hundred yards, where he found shelter behind a rock some distance from the shore. It seemed difficult to dislodge him from this post, and even if he were moved he would probably make down further, when his capture would be almost hopeless. So my gaffer, in spite of my objections, waded out into the torrent up to his waist. Steadying himself as well as he could, he made a dive at the fish, and gaffed it. He dragged the fish to the surface and a fierce struggle ensued; but he was powerless to get back to the shore with

it, and had to let it go again.

The fish went

down the rapid below, and then the hooks came

away. The poor gaffer, wet through, dead beat and overcome with chagrin, threw himself on the ground and uttered-not the wild oaths of his fierce forefathers-but the word "Damn." So do we English spread our civilisation over the face of the globe.

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THIS year, at the beginning of July, the river is again in highest flood-as high, at least, as in the flood of early June. It has been raining hard for days; but the flood, though helped by the rain, is not so much due to it as to the south wind which has melted the great reserves of snow. At Sande, ten miles up the valley, the water is out on the meadows, and the pools in the river are obliterated. Below, it runs within its banks, "brimming and bright and large"; the falls are foaming races of white water, with never a trace of the black rocks which usually emerge from the torrent.

For the last week or more salmon have been

very scarce. There has been a great run of grilse, and if the water has been suitable for them, it is difficult to understand why their elders should have declined to face it. But

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