TROUT FISHING ON THE ANDROSCOGAN. 27 



to the same location. Patiently now I determined to 

 rest, hoping against chance, that in sportive mood, 

 while playing with his intended dejeuner, his highness 

 would get the point of the insidious hook attached to 

 his royal person. What time elapsed I know not, but 

 my necessary inertness and the disagreeableness of my 

 position induced me to endeavour to bring the drama 

 to a finish. "With a gentle strain, I evoked a succession 

 of rapid, quick jerks, admonishing me that I had a 

 gentleman of short temper to deal with. Gradually I 

 continued shortening my line, which, although an 

 unusual proceeding thus early, I succeeded in doing 

 without the least hindrance. Still the dead strain that 

 existed proclaimed that no ordinary contestant was at the 

 other end. In all my previous experience I had never 

 seen a fish come without an effort almost up to my 

 hand, without once making a rush, or giving a chance 

 to judge of his paces. By this time nearly all my line 

 was in, and the trout could not have been over fourteen 

 or fifteen feet from me, but down in deep water, 

 moving slowly in rings of a foot or two in diameter. 

 Whatever some persons might have done, I did 

 not exactly like bivouacking in two feet of rapid 

 stream, with a very precarious footing, and a cloud 

 of mosquitoes singing either a requiem or a lullaby 

 about my unprotected face. My patience exhausted, I 



