90 CURIOUS CAPTURE. 



but serviceable salmon-rod. He owned he had a great 

 fondness for the sport, having been born and grown up 

 in those halcyon days when every poor man was free 

 to feed wife and bairns on the salmon from the stream 

 that bowled by his door; and he still had, he admitted, 

 an occasional harmless cast, which I, for my part, 

 could not grudge him. 



The fiercest struggle with a fish he " minded," was 

 one which continued through a whole night. Having 

 in the evening hooked a very large salmon, and his 

 line being but short, he was forced "to bow to the 

 blast," as he expressed himself, in the hopes that he 

 might eventually weary the creature out. At first he 

 had fairly to fling his rod into the water, which the 

 fish, rushing up the stream, dragged after it. He 

 then, by wading, recovered his rod, and for a time 

 offered a slight resistance, when on a sudden rush he 

 had again to relinquish his hold. In this way the 

 fight went on, by fits and starts. And at length, after 

 repeatedly wading the river to follow his rod, and 

 renew the resistance, he resolved, seeing that the hook 

 was so securely fixed, to go home, and leave the fish 

 to weary itself, which he accordingly did. Keturning 

 next morning, he was at first disappointed on finding 

 110 trace of either rod or fish, but presently he dis- 

 covered the former some hundred yards further up the 

 stream ; and on grasping it, found the salmon still 

 attached to it, and considerably humbled by the night 

 of anxiety and restlessness. The stream, being & 

 rapid one, had always kept the rod alive, and the fish 

 therefore ill at ease, and a few moments' fighting 

 brought him to terms ; " and a bonnier fish I ne'er 

 saw," said Andrew, " and mony a day the gude wife 

 and the wee anes dined on him." 



