36 THE SALMON 



and there is a boil and a momentary glimpse of a 

 broad back. Well had it been for the novice had 

 there been more slack line at the time, or had his eye 

 been less vigilant, for at the first motion of the water 

 he strikes with a suddenness which takes the lure 

 away from the jaws just opening to seize it, and 

 attaches it firmly to the branch of a birch tree twenty 

 yards above him. It is a work of time and labour to 

 dislodge the fly, and there is no need for once to give 

 the fish a rest. Personally conducted a little distance 

 above the rise, the novice is suitably admonished not 

 to be in such a hurry : he had far better not strike at 

 all in such water, and quivering in every nerve he sees 

 his fly once more working at or near the same 

 spot. Again there is a boil — a glint of silver — and 

 this time an electric shock as the connection is com- 

 plete, and the first fish is on. A whirr of the reel, and 

 a singing of the line as the salmon dashes madly down 

 the stream ; but, alas ! the point of the rod is 

 instinctively lowered, which is' just what it ought not 

 to be, and the line is going out with fearful rapidity. 

 ' Up with the point of your rod, mon : up with it — 

 keep a good strain upon him.' No time now for 

 courtesy or respect ! be he baron, duke or royalty 

 itself, the words will out without the preface. Fifty 

 yards of line out — and is that the fish jumping opposite 



