298 TRAVEL, ADVENTUKE, AND SPOET. 



not think a fly likely to do any good, whilst the 

 long salmon -rod seemed to them rather a slim 

 weapon for its work. It was an Irish greenheart, 

 and, in reality, stronger than the giant's pole ; 

 but they judged by bulk, and did not make allow- 

 ance for the difference in the Avood. But that pole 

 must be of good stuff too. It was popularly sup- 

 posed that when the Oberforster hooked anything 

 under 10 Ib. he threw it over his shoulder as a 

 boy does a small trout or parr. At any rate, in 

 that rapid river, often with tree-covered or broken 

 banks, and with such a short line, the fish must be 

 dealt with very summarily. We would have given 

 good money to have seen him ram his great hook 

 into the inside of a 20-pounder, and watch how 

 he played him. The interior arrangement might 

 give way that would be the only chance for the 

 liuclien none of the tackle would : there were 

 about thirty yards of a kind of window-blind cord 

 on the reel. Presently it began to drizzle, and 

 then to pour, and the two spectators went home, 

 but G. and the Oberforster sat in the shelter of the 

 eaves of a little toll-house on the bridge, and dis- 

 cussed fishing in England, Scotland, and Bavaria, 

 and chamois-shooting, and the price of wood, and 

 many other things the natural courtesy of this 

 forester preventing him from even smiling at 

 the ludicrous blunders and idiotic mistakes of his 

 companion. After the Admiral had been given up 



