128 THE SALMON. 



you '11 lose him ! pull in to the rocks ! pull out 

 of the weeds ! aisy, or he '11 be under the boat ! 

 holy mother! but that was a great jump! pull 

 away now, he J s under the boat !" and amid half a 

 dozen other contradictory orders and cautions, we 

 were borne round a jutting rock, over which a 

 friendly ash stretched its light stem and enabled 

 my companion to obtain a secure hold on the 

 slippery rock. Leaving him to fight it fairly out 

 by himself, the boat's head was turned towards 

 the middle of the lake, and it was not till we were 

 a hundred yards from the shore, that, all chance of 

 entanglement being over, I breathed freely and 

 calmly set my wits and sinews to work in opposi- 

 tion to those of the deluded salmon. It were 

 tedious to narrate the various efforts of the fish to 

 escape. Once hooked in open water clear of weeds 

 and rocks, if the fish get off, the man must be a 

 muff; and in less than fifteen minutes from the 

 time we left the shore, a beautiful salmon of thirteen 

 pounds weight, well shaped and fresh run from the 

 sea, was gasping at the bottom of the boat. We 

 reached the shore just in time to gaff the other 

 fish, and that half hour lives in my memory " albo 

 lapide notata" 



No treatise, however lucid or comprehensive, 

 can by any possibility, without practice, make a 



