216 WILD LIFE AND THE CAMERA 



out of the water as he seized the fly. A more 

 perfect rise I have never seen. Away he went, 

 down to the quicker water. Nothing could stop 

 him at first, and the chances seemed entirely in 

 his favour. Gradually the wife got control of the 

 reel, and it was a caution the way in which she 

 made that line come in. The rod bent till the 

 tip touched the water, but nothing would do but 

 that that fish must continue coming. Without 

 realising how close the fish was, she reeled in 

 past the nine-foot leader. At that moment she 

 weakened, and the fish took advantage of the 

 relaxing in the strain and dashed off. Down went 

 the tip till the rod pointed straight at the fish ; the 

 knot caught in the top ferrule, and the sudden 

 jerk pulled out the tip and down the line it slid 

 until it actually hit the fish. Things were certainly 

 looking black. 



" Look out ! The big divil is eatin' the rod," 

 called John, as the fish smashed the tip into tiny 

 pieces ; but the wife held on, and jumping out of 

 the boat, soon had her three-pound fish safely 

 beached. We laughed until there were tears in 

 our eyes as we got out another tip, warning the 

 wife not, on any account, to let the fish eat it. 



" Now, let's put him in the creel," said John, 

 with a twinkle in his blue eyes. " Please ma'am, 

 an' here's the creel, will ye put him in, yersilf?*' 

 The comparative size of the tiny creel and the 

 large trout was too much for John. " Let's cut off 

 his head, ma'am, and put that in, for it's all it'll 

 howld," and since that day the tiny creel has never 

 been in evidence. During the afternoon we caught 



