350 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



position induced me to endeavour to bring the drama 

 to a finish. With a gentle strain, I evoked a succession 

 of rapid, quick jerks, admonishing me that I had a 

 gentleman of short temper to deal with. Gradually 

 I continued shortening my line, which, although an 

 unusual proceeding thus early, I succeeded in doing 

 without the least hindrance. Still the dead strain that 

 existed proclaimed that no ordinary contestant was at 

 the other end. In all my previous experience I had 

 never seen a fish come without an eifort almost up to 

 my hand, without once making a rush, or giving a 

 chance to judge of his paces. By this time nearly all 

 my line was in, and the trout could not have been over 

 fourteen or fifteen feet from me, but down in deep 

 water, moving slowly in rings of a foot or two in 

 diameter. Whatever some persons might have done, I 

 did not exactly like bivouacking in two feet of rapid 

 stream, with a very precarious footing, and a cloud 

 of mosquitoes singing either a requiem or a lullaby 

 about my unprotected face. My patience exhausted, I 

 inwardly made up my mind, let the results be what 

 they would, that I would force the giant to declare 

 himself. Gradually raising the point of my rod, inch 

 by inch, with a steady motion, to my astonishment I 

 brought him to the surface, giving me a good view of 

 his massive form. The chub was across his mouth, as 

 a spaniel would carry a stick, and devil a hook had 

 touched him ! Worse than all, it was apparent, from 

 the constant strain, that my hold of the impromptu 

 bait was nearly at an end. Being humbugged and 

 victimised is at all times disagreeable, and as the 

 laugh was decidedly against me, with a sharp jerk, I 

 disengaged my flies, anathematising the brute which 



