Leaders. 133 



ing against it, thus showing an incessantly varying 

 strain. They seemed to pull their best during some 

 portion of the time while the line was held when being 

 attached to the spring-balance for the first time. Rarely, 

 indeed, could one be induced even by the most savage 

 treatment to pull as hard again. The greatest effect 

 was produced when the fish darted off sidewise. 



Of the many trials intimated above, in but four in- 

 stances were the results satisfactorily conclusive. The 

 following gives the strain in these four cases during the 

 most violent paroxysm of the fish, and, as far as I was 

 able to judge, measures quite accurately all that the in- 

 dividual fish described could do : 



A trout of 1 Ib. 9 oz. pulled 1 Ib. 4 oz. 



a j j a a ^2 



u l u n u 1 " 5 " 



1 9 l 8 " 



But though these four cases were all that were suffi- 

 ciently conclusive to merit detailed report, many of the 

 others were more or less suggestive. The whole series 

 of experiments indicated that I had underestimated the 

 power of trout. I concluded that an active and enter- 

 prising trout in still water could impose, and that dur- 

 ing some part of its struggles for life it may for an in- 

 stant impose, on the leader which holds it a strain equal 

 to the trout's own weight, or a few ounces more in ex- 

 ceptional cases. 



Obviously, this was not quite satisfactory, since the 

 initial strain, presumptively the most energetic, was, in 

 a measure, conjectural. To verify my conclusions a 

 somewhat protracted series of experiments were subse- 



