Striking, Playing, and Landing 123 



darkness this angler became faint from fatigue, 

 and a companion took the rod. He fared little 

 better, though he kept up the fight for eight hours, 

 finding himself at the end of that time seven miles 

 farther down the river, and day just breaking with 

 the fish as fresh as a daisy. The news having by 

 then reached a gentleman living near, he hastily 

 arose, proceeded to the field of action, where he 

 gave the exhausted angler a pound bank-note for 

 the rod and chance of success. For four miles 

 farther and nine successive hours the struggle 

 lasted with the third combatant, until with a des- 

 perate plunge the fish broke off the rod close to 

 the reel and proceeded to the sea, leaving with 

 his last adversary only the reel and part of the 

 butt. The time occupied was twenty-two hours, 

 and the distance travelled down-stream was four- 

 teen miles the book says " almost twenty miles." 

 The fish may have been a relative of the one 

 Nicholas Brown of Galway used to mention, which 

 was hooked late one afternoon by the " Portumna 

 Man," who played him for three hours, when he 

 sent home for his supper, which he ate while the 

 fish was sulking, then worked hard at him till 

 early morning and took advantage of another sulk- 

 ing time to write an account of the conflict for the 



