GLIMPSES OF CANADA, ETC. 241 



that twelve yards of line were enough for his style of 

 business ; that though a fish might be temporarily 

 scared aside by the passage of the cockle-shell, it would 

 be just about restored to quiet when the spoon came 

 along, and more likely to dash at it than with a greater 

 length of line. Of course, I stuck to our English ways, 

 and kept my phantom engaged at a distance, when pos- 

 sible, of never less than thirty yards. In course of 

 time Ben's objections and protests were once for all 

 silenced ; he gave me up as an opinionated ass, whom 

 it was waste of time to trouble about any more. 



" Smack, smack," at last a momentary sensation 

 at the rod-top. How the fish could have struck at my 

 phantom, doubled up the soleskin body, without, how- 

 ever, touching a single hook of the deadly trio of tri- 

 angles, was as much a marvel as ever it has been from 

 the beginning. In the course of half an hour I had 

 three such abortive runs at the phantom, and one small 

 fellow of i^ lb., lightly hooked, bounded into the air 

 and fell back free. Under these circumstances there 

 was little thought of discomfort. Who cared for cramp 

 now ? The fish were assuredly on the move, and that 

 one 'lunge of my modest desire was not so remote a 

 possibility as it had been in the forenoon. The chances 

 of friend A. were of course held by Master Ben to be 

 the best of the two, and, in truth, why not ? For 

 reasons hinted at above it would have delighted me 

 if it was left for him to prove how unnecessary were all 

 the finer precautions of scientific sport. Such things 

 have happened in salt water, and, it may be, in fresh. 



Musingly, as the canoe was proceeding midway be- 

 tween island and mainland, I was thinking of examples 

 of the caprices of piscatorial fortune and of the posi- 

 tive instances when art and skill had been practically 

 put to shame by the rudest methods. From the reverie, 

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