A DAY AT LOUGH MELVIN. 65 



Scholar ; for this pleasant dialogue was car- 

 ried on from boat to boat, with a hundred 

 yards of water between the disputants. 

 " You would be looking after that wretched 

 little gillaroo, because it was your fish — as 

 if you could not have backed your boat ! 

 Any one with common sense might have 

 seen what must happen." 



" I should like to know, sir, what you 

 mean by saying this to me?" bellowed out 

 the Squire. 



The matter was evidently fast approach- 

 ing to the state of " coffee and pistols for 

 two," when the Captain, who, all unmindful 

 of the fray, had taken the opportunity of 

 casting his trolling litch into a likely bay in 

 the weeds, suddenly started up, his stiff 

 pike-rod bending as if it had been a fly-rod, 

 his reel rattling, and his line flying out. 



" Get the boat's head round, Pat. Follow 

 him. Give way like mad, for my line is 

 nearly out ! " 



Away went the boat in chase ; but so 

 strong and so determined was the fish's first 

 rush, that it was some time before the Cap- 

 tain could recover his line. This fish was evi- 

 dently, like the salmon, heading for the deep 



