LOSS OF A HUGE SALMON. 97 



week, did I toil without success ; believe me, sir, in all 

 that time I never saw a fin. At last the long-desired mo- 

 ment came, I hooked a prodigious monster ; the natives 

 were astounded at his portentous size, nay, some went 

 so far as to say that he was no salmon, but the great sea 

 snake, called jormungandr, in person, whom Thor fished 

 for with a bull's head ; but it proved to be a salmon after 

 all, and not the great sea snake. 



" Soon after I hooked him he made a prodigious rush, 

 which brought him to the channel in bare water; the offi- 

 cious Norwegian immediately tucked a large iron* hook 

 into him, which was fastened to the end of a long stick, 

 and fairly hauled him ashore. 



" Being extremely disappointed to find my sport ter- 

 minate so suddenly, I obliged him to put the fish back into 

 the river that I might kill him secundum artem. This 

 he was at length persuaded to do, though I must say he 

 performed it with a very bad grace. 



" The fish, once more in his element, began to exhibit 

 most astonishing power and activity, bending my rod like 

 a willow wand, and making my arms quiver again : his 

 runs were so strenuous and rapid, that one of my fingers 

 coming in contact with the line, was deeply cut by it. 

 After various manoeuvres on his part (which I would fain 

 hope I defeated with some degree of dexterity), he at length 

 darted down the stream, and ran out nearly all my line ; 

 then he shot suddenly across the river, and went up 

 under the opposite bank : I pulled strenuously, but my 

 line seemed fixed to one particular spot ; and whilst I was 

 looking at that spot, where I conceived the monster to be, 

 I * Called in Scotland, a Chick. 

 H 



