214 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 



pike-hook, with its wire arming, affixing thereto one 

 of the small fry just captured. 



" Proceeding, thus equipped, a few yards up the 

 stream, I allowed my bait to drop gently into the 

 centre of a strong, dark-coloured eddy, within which it 

 was no sooner enveloped, than I became sensible of its 

 being seized by a pair of powerful jaws. Immediately 

 also, a steady determination thereof towards the op- 

 posite bank warned me to give out line with my hand 

 from the reel. On finding this, however, speedily 

 exhausted by the determined progress of the fish 

 across the stream, I thought it proper to strike sharply; 

 and no sooner, gentlemen, was this accomplished, than 

 there came at once to view the fluke of a prodigious 

 tail, announcing to me the presence of a fish at least 

 five stone in weight ! (Great cheering) 



"I do not exaggerate I am incapable of exagger- 

 ating. Five stone ! be it repeated, was the weight of 

 this fish ; and the sequel, gentlemen, should you listen 

 to me, will remove all doubts of my veracity. 



" Before I could well recover from the astonishment 

 caused in me by the partial display of such a mon- 

 ster, he commenced ascending the river at an able 

 pace, but by no means so rapidly as to occasion his 

 pursuer over-much distress. In fact, to my best 

 recollection, I was not constrained to yield above 

 four fathoms of line during the whole run, which 

 lasted fifteen minutes at a moderate calculation, and 

 took me a mile's distance from the spot where I first 



