60 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



struck, and contrive in his descent to fall on 

 the line, so as to break the hold of the hook. 

 I have seen many, when but slightly hooked, 

 by a violent and continuous effort shake the 

 hook out of their mouths ; and I have seen 

 others, well hooked but too tightly held, break 

 the strong line like pack-thread, or straighten 

 the hook itself as though it were made of pin- 

 wire. But perhaps the most efficacious, and 

 to the fisherman annoying mode of escape, was 

 one not uncommonly practised by a clean-run 

 vigorous fish. Indeed, I must own that, 

 though the kelts showed more craft and 

 cunning, and brought to their aid great 

 physical power, the fresh-run fish, for a clean 

 rush and a stand-up fight, beat them hollow. 

 The dodge they practised was as follows : 

 swimming near the surface, and rushing down 

 stream some thirty or forty yards, they sud- 

 denly sought the bottom, and returned upon 

 their tracks with scarce diminished speed. The 

 weighty water bagging out the line, gave the 

 fisher, more especially if a tyro, the idea that 

 his intended victim's course was still down- 

 wards, and, paying out line rapidly, he enabled 

 the fish to bring such a weight of water upon 



