FONTIISTALIS 



performed to admiration the task of 

 netting. One breathless moment there 

 was when it seemed that the capacious 

 landing net would not receive him, but 

 his day had come, the last impulse of his 

 powerful tail sent him home and in he 

 swung to meet the coup de grace. 



Passing from the glamour of pursuit 

 and capture to the chill realm of figures, 

 let me conjure up a pale wraith of the 

 fish that lay between us on the grass. 

 Weight, eight and a quarter pounds; 

 length, twenty-five and three-quarter 

 inches; depth, eight and one-eighth 

 inches. The girth can scarcely have been 

 less than twenty inches, as his back was 

 very broad and he was in superb condi- 

 tion, but this I carelessly neglected to 

 measure. Mesgil and I, taking off our 

 hats, bowed low to the largest trout we 

 had ever seen, and the occasion being a 

 solemn one we recognized it by filling 

 our pipes from one another's pouches. 



How different this from the pursuit 



68 



