296 PIKE AND PIKE-FISHING. 



seemingly without the least fatigue. Having regained, 

 however, the spot from which it had commenced its 

 run, all on a sudden the fish halted, and immediately, 

 without any jerk or strain on my part, the line came to 

 hand, neatly severed or cut through by the teeth, above 

 the wire-fastenings to which the gorge-hook had been 

 appended. No slight disappointment it was. I fancied 

 of course that I had lost a pike of such uncommon size, 

 as to have been able to engross, in pouching, the 

 whole extent of arming in question, measuring nearly a 

 foot. My sole resource therefore, or hope of retrieve, 

 and I was by no means sanguine of the result, lay in 

 the setting of the two lines I had brought along with 

 me, at or near the spot where the fish had made its 

 escape. Accordingly, baiting each with a trout of at 

 least four ounces in weight, I threw them in not far 

 from one another, with small floats attached, in order 

 to show off the lure and keep it from the bottom. This 

 done, I pursued my way further up the river and com- 

 menced trouting. On my return, after the expiry of 

 two or three hours, to the place where I had set the 

 lines, I found that both the corks were out of sight 

 and the cords stretched to the uttermost, but quite 

 motionless. Drawing the nearer one, I was surprised to 

 observe it, although made of strong and fresh material, 

 snapped through at the middle. It was not so, how- 

 ever, with the other. There was evidently something 

 attached to it of considerable weight and bulk, without, 

 however, any live resistance. Imagine my surprise, 

 when, on hauling it nearer the bank, I beheld a huge 

 eel enveloped among the cords, quite choked and lifeless. 

 Of river eels it was the largest I had ever witnessed, 

 although I certainly have seen congers of greater size. 

 Above four feet and a half in length, and in girth fully 



