130 2 HE SALMON. 



manoeuvres to escape from what must be considered 

 an artificial shape in which danger is presented, 

 and of which the creature can have no experience, 

 and those manoeuvres always admirably adapted 

 to the end in view ? One of the commonest and 

 most effective of these, especially when you are 

 fishing with a long line, is to run in directly towards 

 you, thereby loosening the line and gaining the 

 opportunity of shaking the hook out of its mouth. 

 You must, at any risk, at any sacrifice of dignity, 

 prevent this. Run backwards, throw the point of 

 your rod well behind you, wind up in mad haste, 

 do anything except pulling the line through the 

 rings with your hand, as practised in Thames 

 fishing. This may answer with a phlegmatic bar- 

 bel, or a sulky pike, but never with the astute, 

 vigorous salmon. Wind up ! wind up ! ! wind up ! ! ! 

 Your reel, if made as recommended, with an extra 

 large cylinder, will aid in this; but rapidity of 

 motion is the great point, and unless you succeed 

 in giving check by regaining a tight line, the fish 

 will assuredly checkmate you and be lost. A 

 lightly-hooked fish will invariably shake, flounder, 

 and jump repeatedly into the air : your effort must 

 be, by a light, firm, unswerving pressure, to fix the 

 hold, and in this your pliable rod will greatly 

 assist ; but nerve is everything. If you are fright- 



