152 SALMONIA. [sixth day. 



HAL. — Hold him tight, or you will lose him. 



POIET. — Pear me not. I trust, in spite of his 

 strength, I shall turn him. You see, I show him the 

 but of the rod, and his force is counterpoised by a 

 very long lever. 



HAL. — You do well. But he has made a violent 

 spring, and, I fear, is off. 



POIET. — He is ; but not, I think, by any fault of 

 mine. He has carried off something. 



HAL. — You played that fish so well, that I am 

 angry at his loss. Either the hook, link, or line, 

 failed you. 



POIET. — It is the hook, which you see is broken, 

 and not merely at the barb, but likewise in the shank. 

 What a fool I was ever to use one of these London or 

 Birmingham -made hooks. 



HAL. — The tiling has happened to me often. I 

 now never use any hooks for salmon fishing, except 

 those which 1 am sure have been made by O^Shaugh- 

 nessy, of Limerick ; for even those made in Dublin, 

 though they seldom break, yet they now and then 

 bend : and the English hooks, made of cast steel in 

 imitation of Irish ones, are the worst of all. There 

 is a fly nearly of the same colour as that which is 

 destroyed ; and I can tell you, that I saw it made at 

 Limerick by O'Shaughnessy himself, and tied on one 

 of his own hooks. Should you catch with it a fish 



