210 THE ADIRONDACK. 



at the hazard of his life, or whether in his terrible 

 swoop he had struck his crooked talons so deep in the 

 back of the salmon, he could not extricate himself, the 

 hunter said he could not tell. The latter, however, 

 was doubtless the truth, and he would have been glad 

 to have let go, long before he did. The old fellow 

 probably spent the afternoon in studying avoirdupois 

 weight, and ever after tried his tackle on smaller fish. 

 As for the poor salmon, if he survived the severe 

 laceration, he doubtless never fully understood the 

 operation he had gone through. 



