284 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



seeing you fish, and help you, if you need my services in any 

 way, but for myself, 1 have had enough." 



I had a good deal of difficulty in getting the big Trout into 

 my creel, but by carefully curving him around, I succeeded. 

 The parson had resumed operations, and just as I finished 

 stowing away my reel and flies, he struck a large one, in the 

 big pool, with which he had grand sport for some fifteen 

 minutes. He finally succeeded in landing it, and when the 

 tape-line was applied to it, it scored seventeen and one-half 

 inches. Then we followed down over a succession of rapids 

 for probably half a mile, to a point where the river made an 

 abrupt turn and had cut a deep hole in the opposite bank. 

 A shelving ledge of limestone projected out over this, and 

 beneath it the water whirled and effervesced, flecked here 

 and there with little balls of foam that came dancing down 

 in a never-ending procession, from the foot of the rapid. 



"Look out for a big one there, parson." 



"It does look promising, don't it?" and he made a skillful 

 cast, his flies falling gently on the whirling water, well over 

 toward the shelving rock. Instantly there was a commotion 

 on the surface, and the form of a mighty Trout was seen to 

 whirl upward and dart back under the rock. The parson 

 struck at the proper instant, and settling the butt of his rod 

 well forward, checked the rush of the fish slightly, when it 

 turned and made a dash up toward the head of the pool. 

 The parson gave him line, and he sailed through the water, 

 with the speed of a carrier-pigeon through the air, until he 

 reached the very foot of the rapid. Then he turned and 

 made another dash for the hole under the rock. The angler 

 reeled in his line as rapidly as possible; but the fish was too 

 quick for him, and darted under the rock, leaving several feet 

 of slack hanging loosely in the water. I shuddered lest it 

 should foul on some projecting rock; but when it came taut 

 again, it seemed to be clear. The Trout sulked for a moment, 

 but the parson urged it; when it felt the twang of the steel in 



