GLIMPSES OF CANADA, ETC. 243 



intention of pulling ashore, as he was in the habit of 

 doing with the hand-line operation, and the nearest 

 land was not a yard less than a mile off. Then I opened 

 my mouth and spake with my tongue, and Ben, finding 

 that I could shout bad language as well as he, proved 

 himself after all a fine fellow amenable to orders, and 

 a veritable sport when once he comprehended that 

 here was a fish that must be humoured and not lugged 

 in by brute force. He not only ceased rowing, but 

 quickly tumbled to the trick in other respects. He 

 backed water, and, shortly, was most intelligently taking 

 care that the canoe should follow the fish. We all 

 knew it was worth catching, and from its appearance 

 during its flashing somersault in the air I had estimated 

 it at about 15 Ib. 



It was a new experience to play a lively fish of 

 respectable dimensions, sitting low and cramped, and 

 fearing to move, in a cockle-shell canoe. If one could 

 have stood up square and fair to the fight the course 

 would have been clear ; it would have been something 

 to have knelt, but there was no opportunity for even 

 that modest sort of compromise. And the fish did 

 fight most gamely ; certainly, too, with the odds im- 

 mensely in its favour. Wrist, arms, shoulders, back, 

 and legs of the angler were strained and pained by the 

 efforts necessary to keep the taut line free of the boat, 

 but A. ducked his head deftly once when the fish shot 

 to the left of me at right angles, and lay low until I 

 had it back in line of communication again. Twice the 

 fish tried the expediency of running in towards me, 

 and alarming Ben with the slack line, delighting him in 

 proportionate degree when the winching-in found all 

 taut and safe. So far as we could make out afterwards 

 the fight with my 'lunge lasted half an hour, and it 

 was fighting, too, all the while in the gamest fashion. 



