310 PBAIEIE AND FOREST. 



measured throw I placed my fly, straight as a bee-line * a 

 few yards above where my prey was supposed to be lodged ; 

 and with that regular motion that resembles the passage of 

 a shrimp through the water, I brought the bright fasci- 

 nating deception towards me, the current at the same time 

 carrying it downwards. Description, particularly if you 

 enter into detail, is always longer than action. My hand- 

 some imitation of what ? for a similar living fly I never 

 saw was a foot or two above the desired eddy when a 

 splash, a flourish of a broad dark tail, answered by my quick 

 nervous hand giving an electric strike, fastened me to a 

 splendid fish. As man and animals choose different 

 methods of assault or defence, so this salmon selected a 

 different course to free himself. The hook had scarcely 

 been in him when four times he sprang with determined 

 energy from his watery home, each spring causing me in 

 courtesy to lower the point of my weapon, as an inferior 

 would salute a senior officer ; but this steeple-chase esca- 

 pade had not the desired effect, and the salmon, compre- 

 hending this, altered his plan of combat and settled down 

 deep in the pellucid river, although far from conquered. 

 An occasion of this kind is a trying ordeal, and often as 

 dangerous to the tackle as any stratagem that is put in 

 practice; in fact, I have thought that it is pursued for 

 the purpose of rubbing their snout on the rocks or 

 gravel, as frequently I have found after killing a fish 

 who had thus performed that my fly was much frayed and 

 worn. 



* A common Americanism originating from loaded bees always flying 

 straight to their home. 



