" JACK." 39 



boring up for the bridge in the heavy water. Naturally, I had no idea 

 of allowing him to thread his way up through the arch, as I could ill 

 follow him there, so I had to keep up as steady and strong a strain as I 

 dared. He soon had enough of that fun, and down he came at express 

 speed past me, leaving me to get in my line by hand as best I could. 

 By good luck, I was able to get the slack reeled up whilst Jack was 

 careering about in the broader water below me. Hardly had I done so 

 when, at the end of his run, he gave a grand leap, after the fashion of a 

 sea trout ; a dip of rod-point to his majesty saved a catastrophe, and I 

 now began to try to reach terra firma. My friend, however, was not at all 

 disposed to give me much time for such an operation, and just as I was 

 trying to regain the bank — a sufficiently ticklish operation with a wild 

 fish held only by the finest of drawn gut — he made a most determined 

 rush for the big bed of flags below the bridge. Once let him attain that 

 stronghold and I was fairly done ; so I had once more to test my gut, 

 and resolutely to determine that he should obey my will. Better be 

 broke at once than lose him in that weed bed. Once more he gave 

 way, and I was able to regain the bank. At that moment Maxwell turned 

 up for luncheon, and the fish, now absolutely beaten, was successfully 

 netted out. I found that in his mad rushes and gyrations he had 

 managed to get two full turns of the gut round his gills. This no doubt 

 accounted for his coming to bank so speedily. He weighed just over 

 311b. — no great monster after all, you may ejaculate, but he was about the 

 most perfect specimen of a trout I have ever seen, and was in the pink of 

 condition. He now graces my study in a glass case, the only specimen of 

 a fish that I have ever set up. But there was some justification for this 

 temporary mental aberration, and I often now look at him and recall his 

 sporting end, and the difficult conditions under which I managed to 

 capture him. He carries back my mind to the fond recollections of 

 my old friend, now no more, one of the best and most unselfish of anglers, 

 whose untimely loss has left a blank among his many friends that cannot 

 be filled. 



