SALMON 19 



a favourite practice of D.'s ; he once beached 

 a 30-pounder on a Scotch river, and the 

 habit has become inveterate. It certainly has 

 its attractions ; the angler owes nothing to 

 extraneous aid ; the victory is his and his 

 alone 



" With yielding hand, 



That feels him still, yet to his furious course 

 Gives way, you, now retiring, following now 

 Across the stream, exhaust his idle rage, 

 Till, floating broad upon his breathless side, 

 And to his fate abandoned, to the shore 

 You gaily drag your unresisting prize." 1 



Again I return to the head of Lervik, and 

 again the Wilkinson proves its attractiveness. 

 But this time I am not to have it all my own 

 way. The fish, a bigger one than either I 

 have killed, takes down the pool, turns sharply 

 into the slack water on the other side and then 

 runs for the Fos. If he gets to the top of the 

 island which I have mentioned as lying be- 

 tween the two pools, he will turn past it into 

 a deep hole between it and the fall, and will 

 probably cut my line against the jagged rocks 

 at the corner. This is what happens. His 

 sharp turn from the stream into the slack 



1 James Thomson, "The Seasons" Spring. 



