DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 51 



his will \\ath me. Oh ! If I only had some stronger 

 tackle on there would be a fight I should have some 

 patience with. Sta\^ I must not forget there is need 

 for the greatest patience \\ith the finest tackle and the 

 glory is greater when one so succeeds. Round and 

 round he travelled, in and out, sometimes so slowly 

 in spite of all my dare of lifting that it m.ight have been 

 the bottom of the pool which was shifting or that the 

 fish by his contem.ptuous treatment of me meant to 

 say : *0h ! go and hang yourself or go back to bed.* 



There are no means, so far as I know, of measuring 

 the length in hom*s of impotent, agonising minutes. 

 I have taken many trout from where I stood, but only 

 of such a size that I could lift their noses so that their 

 struggles brought them over the apron when they 

 sought its dangerous shelter. No precedent that I 

 could think of seem.ed of use. I shufflingly shifted my 

 position a yard or two, how many times I do not 

 know, but always to return to the spot that up till 

 then had kept me clear of the serious entanglement 

 I feared. I shortened his rests in sundry places by 

 a wxist strike — all I dared — but his movements were 

 so slow for such a lengthened period that the strain 

 on my uplifted arm nearly fixed it with cramp and I was 

 glad to give it freedom, by a change of holding, and a 

 flick or two. 



At last, after visiting many times ever^^ other 

 portion of the pool, he came towards me beneath 

 the rush of water and, when quite close, came almost 

 to the surface, just where I had hooked him, an& added 

 to my fears b}^ showing that he was but lightlv hooked 

 outside his mouth by the tail triangle of the flight 

 that the bleak had spun on. It was then I did a foolish 

 thing : I changed back the rod to the rested arm; 

 the movement was seen; the frightened fish turned 

 and plunged, and, in doing so, struck the trace with 

 his tail and freed himself. There is much that might 

 be said far more appropriate for such occasicns than 



