JASPER ST. AUBYN. 805 



head, and was sent fifteen yards aloof, straight as a wild bee's 

 flight, into a little mimic whirlpool, scarce larger than the hat 

 of the skilful fisherman, which spun round and round just to 

 leeward of a grey ledge of Kmestone. Scarce had it reached 

 its mark before the water broke all around it, and the gay 

 deceit vanished, the heavy swirl of the surface, as the break 

 was closing, indicating the great size of the fish which had 

 risen. Just as the swirl was subsiding, and the forked tail of 

 the monarch of the stream was half seen as he descended, that 

 indescribable but well-known turn of the angler's wrist, fixed 

 the barbed hook, and taught the scaly victim the nature of the 

 prey he had gorged so heedlessly. 



" With a wild bound he threw himself three feet out of the 

 water, showing his silver sides, with the sea-lice yet clinging to 

 his scales, a fresh sea-run fish of fifteen, ay, eighteen pounds, 

 and perhaps over. 



" On his broad back he strikes the water, but not as he meant 

 the tightened line; for as he leaped, the practised hand had 

 lowered the rod's tip, that it fell in a loose bight below him. 

 Again ! again ! again ! and yet a fourth time he bounded into 

 the air with desperate and vigorous soubresaults, like an unbro- 

 ken steed that would dismount his rider, lashing the eddies of 

 the dark stream into bright bubbling streaks, and making the 

 heart of his captor beat high with anticipation of the desperate 

 struggle that should follow, before the monster would lie 

 panting and exhausted on the yellow sand or moist greensward. 



'* Away ! with the rush of an eagle through the air, he is 

 gone like an arrow down the rapids — how the reel rings, and 

 the line whistles from the swift working wheel ; he is too swift, 



