ROD AND REEL. 135 



mthin reach of my arm, and when high np in 

 mid-air he shook himself, the crystal drops wei'e 

 flung into my very face. Perliaps I shall live long 

 enough to forget the picture, as that trout for 

 an instant hung in the air, his hlue back and 

 azure sides spotted with gold and agate, his 

 fins edged with snowy white, his eyes protruding, 

 gills distended, the leader hanging Irom his jaM's, 

 while a shower of pearly drops were shaken from 

 his quivering sides. He fell ; but while still 

 in air the Ijoat glided backward, and when he 

 touched the water I was thirty feet away and ready 

 for his rush. It came. And as he passed us, 

 some forty feet oft', he clove the water as a bolt 

 from a cross-bow might cleave the air. Possibly 

 for five minutes the frenzy lasted. Not a word 

 was uttered. The whiz of the line througli the 

 water, the whir .of the flying reel, and an occa- 

 sional grunt from John as the fish doubled on the 

 boat, were the only sounds to be heard. "When, 

 suddenly, in one of his wildest flights, the terribly 

 taxed rod straightened itself out with a spring, 

 the pressure ceased, the line slackened, and the 

 fish again lay on the bottom. AViping the sweat 

 from my brow, I turned to John and said, " AVhat 

 do you think of that ? " 



"•^Ir. Murray," replied John, laying the paddle 

 down and drawing tlie slee^'C of his woollen shirt 

 across his forehead, l)ead(^.d with perspiration, — 



