TACKLE 221 



ring. What I ought to have done of course 

 was to join the two ends of line near the reel, 

 and trust to being able to play the fish without 

 needing more line than was already out : had I 

 done this I should have retained for myself the 

 privilege of being able to reel in line. But to 

 do this would have taken longer, the fish might 

 have made a bolt while I was doing it, and I 

 was in great terror and had no time to reflect. 

 The result was that when communications were 

 re-established, I was attached to a salmon about 

 twenty yards away, without any power either of 

 reducing the distance, or of allowing it to be 

 increased. Far below me was a broad extent of 

 shingle, and I fought to gain this. The river 

 was at least forty yards broad, but the salmon 

 kindly restricted all his struggles to my side, and 

 at last I stood upon the shingle, on a level with 

 the water, and with flat ground on which I could 

 retire from the water's edge. This I began to 

 do, and was succeeding yard by yard when the 

 hold gave and the fly came back to me. Then 

 followed the thought of how much better things 

 might have been managed, and the blank despair 

 of knowing that with a rapidly rising river, 



