134 THE SALMON. 



line being " cut" by the sharp edges against which 

 it is forcibly dragged. Not unfrequently, too, the 

 salmon will run round a rock which projects suffi- 

 ciently far into the water from the opposite side to 

 allow of his doing so, thereby getting a dead pull 

 at the line and breaking away. In such a case, 

 when you feel the strain on the line relax, 

 by no means give up the game as lost. Pass 

 over, or, better still, let your attendant pass over 

 to the other side, quietly release the line, and it 

 will not unfrequently happen that the fish is still 

 firmly attached to it ; he, too, has felt the relief 

 from the strain, and is quietly resting in fancied 

 security after what he considers a release from 

 unaccustomed and altogether incomprehensible 

 labour. It must not, however, be supposed that 

 all the salmon's manoeuvres are premeditated or 

 calculated as means to an end. We are apt to 

 refine too much, and to attribute, without due con- 

 sideration, reasoning motives to actions which ori- 

 ginate solely in an instinctive avoidance of danger. 

 A salmon runs your line against a sharp rock by 

 pure accident, and not from malice prepense, with 

 the express object of cutting it, although such 

 result undoubtedly ensues. He runs round a rock 

 because, terrified and excited, he knows not at the 

 moment whither he is rushing, and frequently stops 



