76 AN ANGLER'S LINES. 



live -bait were the sole outcome of repeated 

 runs. The punt was shifted to a part of the 

 lake where rushes abounded. Their promise of 

 pike was not belied, and six fish soon entered 

 the seclusion of the well, but the size, varying 

 from 4 Ib. to 5 Ib., was disappointing when 

 one remembered the potentialities of the water. 

 What they lacked in weight they made up in 

 gameness, for each fought a desperate fight 

 to the bitter end, and oft-times disaster 

 threatened. Then came a new event. My 

 friend's float went down, and there ensued a 

 mighty conflict betwixt fisher and fish. A gain 

 of a few inches of line, negatived by a rush 

 that took out more than double the quantity, 

 a stubborn resistance to coercion, a grudging 

 submission to the steady pressure of the rod, 

 an apparently beaten fish, and then a dash 

 for a jagged stake that stood up from the 

 bed of the lake. He was round it! He was 

 free ! ! 



Upon our lamentations there broke a 

 sudden answering cry from off the face of the 



