46 ONE SALMON 



This I knew was sound. Then I had to keep my eye on the sub- 

 merged bushes and the network of boughs which branched from the 

 fallen pine tree. After all, perhaps the fight was better than in a 

 stretch of still water, for here your knowing fish will run you out 

 thirty to fifty yards of line and suddenly make a dash for your feet, 

 causing the slacking of the line and throwing large chances into his 

 favour. In swift water, if you can only hold on while your fish is 

 working down stream, he cannot make headway fast enough 

 against the rapid current to create the danger of bellying the 

 line, and he wears himself out more quickly. Up and down 

 my fish came and went in a game of seesaw, once or twice 

 skating along the surface amid a smother of foam, and three times 

 he nearly got into the drag of the boiling vortex, which drew away 

 the water of the pool in long whirling swirls, and viciously dashed 

 against submerged boulders for upwards of a hundred yards. Had 

 my intense pull relaxed for an instant at one of these critical junc- 

 tures good-bye to my gallant friend for ever ! Each time he reached 

 the very end of the pool and the strong water helped to drag him 

 away from my control, I could scarcely prevent him from being 

 carried down stream by the sheer weight of the current. What 

 happiness in the glorious fight he was making and what moments 

 of intense anxiety ! But after the third attempt had been made and 

 had been checked, the issue of the contest which for so long had been 

 doubtful began to be assured, and I at length felt some confidence 

 in bringing my salmon to the gaff, if only I could save him from 

 fouling the line against the submerged wood. How nearly he 

 came to defeating me the hair's-breadths by which I succeeded in 

 steering him clear by tremendous pressure are known to my guide 

 and me ; but all the dangers were successfully surmounted, and at 

 length in due time the salmon glittering on the bank : a fresh beauty 

 just from the sea, with sides gleaming like hammered silver, de- 

 lighted us by his magnificent symmetry, with small head, tapering 

 well at each extremity, broad tail and immense dorsal fin. I can 

 safely say that I enjoyed taking that fish more than ninety and nine 

 others where the fight was tamer and perhaps such is the experi- 

 ence of most anglers. Moreover, he was my first fish for the season, 

 and, brothers of the angle, ye know what that means ! 



The next time I fished the river I could scarcely make myself 

 believe that this silent stealthy silver stream, which I watched so 

 quietly gliding by me, was the same dark river of swift currents and 

 riotous whirlpools whence I had taken the one salmon which had 

 afforded me such moments of mingled pleasure and solicitude. 



