LEISTERING 243 



do great things, you fancy. But what happens ? 

 The water proves deeper than you had calculated 

 upon, and, not touching the bottom with your 

 spear as a support, in you go, your head taking the 

 lead, and the rest of your members following the 

 playful example. 



Strike your fish over the shoulders if you can, 

 and bring your boat in such a position as to make 

 the stroke as vertical as possible. When you have 

 fixed him, hold him to the ground a space ; then 

 run your hands down the pole, making the distance 

 between them and the fish as short as you con- 

 veniently can ; lift the animal with his head upper- 

 most, by which means he will come out lighter, 

 and such action as he may make with his tail will 

 assist you rather than himself. 



If you do not bear in mind this instruction, and 

 choose to have a go at a salmon at a little distance 

 from you, as having a way of your own, I will tell 

 you what will probably happen from this freak 

 also. The stroke will drive back the boat, and 

 you and the fish will part company. You may 

 have struck him, perhaps, — not impossible that ; 

 but your intended victim twists off in a moment, 

 and says as plainly as a salmon can speak, levrd 

 rincommodo. 



I should observe that in burning the water by 

 night there is no time to fix every fish to the 

 ground, and that they are then most usually lifted 

 quickly ; indeed, as the boat falls gradually down 

 the stream, it generally comes over them con- 

 veniently enough. 



To these various methods of taking fish I must 



