94 THE MAGNOLIA 



bank was fairly open ; once over there and the fish was 

 mine, if the hook held. To attempt to land a fish on the 

 opposite side of a stream to where he is hooked is some- 

 times a risky experiment. The strain on the hook is 

 changed to the opposite direction to that in which it was 

 embedded, and often pulls it out. However, by this time 

 the salmon had tired himself, and was lying still in the 

 quieter water below me. I slipped cautiously down the 

 rock into the river, and straddling wide, the best way of 

 resisting a strong current, slowly felt my way into mid- 

 stream. The water turned out no deeper than /waist-high, 

 but it was mighty strong, very cold, and the bottom very 

 rough. I shall not easily forget the sense of triumph 

 with which I stood at last on the far bank. Hitherto the 

 balance of odds had been enormously in favour of the 

 fish ; now it was not less so on my side. In a few seconds 

 I had the gaff in him, a pretty twelve-pounder, and then 

 set out on the return journey through the stream to 

 regain the property left on the other bank. 



That anonymous pool must henceforth bear a name, and 

 if there be justice in the affairs of men, that should surely 

 be his who killed the first salmon therein. Sic itur ad 

 astra ! 



XII 



Bicycling one charming morning in April (1902) be- 

 tween Woking and Pirbright, I saw afar off 

 w h a t I took to be a lofty white-washed gable 

 gleaming in the sunlight. A turn of the road shut it out 

 of sight; a few hundred yards further another turn 

 brought me close in front of this object. I dismounted 

 with a feeling akin to awe. Here was no gable built with 



