68 SPORT. 



one on every pool) and follow, like a harpooner 

 towed by a whale. The river widens below Tofte 

 and a short swift shallow leads to the next pool, 

 Langholmen, or Long Island. I have a momentary 

 doubt whether to land on the island or on the opposite 

 side where there is a deeper but swifter pool, towards 

 which the fish is evidently making. I decide at once, 

 but decide wrong — which is better, however, than 

 not deciding at all — and I land on Langholmen, into 

 whose calm flowing water I had fondly hoped that 

 incipient fatigue would have enticed my fish, and 

 find him far over in the opposite pool with an irre- 

 concilable length of line doubtfully connecting us. 

 It is an awful moment ! If he goes up stream now, 

 I am lost — that is to say, my fish is — which in my 

 present frame of mind is the same thing ; no line or 

 hook would ever stand the strain of that weight of 

 water. But, no, mighty as he is, he is mortal, and but 

 a fish after all, and even his giant strength is failing 

 him, and inch by inch and foot by foot he drops 

 down the stream, and as he does so the reel gradually 



