FISHING YARNS 289 



water by the salmon, and his plumage so drenched that he 

 was unable to free himself. The peasant broke the pinion 

 of the eagle with a stone, and actually secured the spoiler 

 and his victim, for he found the salmon dying in his grasp. 



But far more remarkable was the case of a duck which 

 hooked a trout under the following extraordinary circum- 

 stances, as related in vol. xlviii, of the Sporting Magazine. 

 A gentleman angling in the mill dam below Winchester 

 accidentally threw his line across a strong white duck, 

 which, suddenly turning round, twisted the gut about her 

 own neck and fixed the hook of the dropper fly in her own 

 breast. Thus entangled and hooked, she soon broke off 

 the gut above the dropper, and sailed down the stream 

 with the end of the other fly trailing behind her. She 

 had not proceeded far before a trout of about i| lb. took 

 the fly effectually. Then commenced an extraordinary 

 struggle. When the trout exerted itself the duck became 

 frightened and dragged the fish along. When the trout 

 was more quiet the duck suffered herself to be drawn under 

 some bushes, where her head was frequently pulled under 

 water. Presently, however, the gut got across a branch, and 

 the duck, taking advantage of the purchase which this gave 

 her, dragged her opponent out, and obliged him to show 

 his head above water. Then it became a contest of life 

 and death. The trout was in its last agonies, and the duck 

 evidently in a very weak state, when the gut broke and set 

 them both free. 



A farmer living near Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire, kept a 

 gander who delighted in leading his cackling harem to 

 circumnavigate their native lake, or to stray amidst the 

 fields on the opposite shore. Wishing to check this habit, 

 the farmer tied a large fish-hook baited with dead frog to 

 the gander's leg. This bait soon caught the eye of a 

 greedy pike, which, swallowing the deadly hook, not only 

 arrested the progress of the astonished gander, but forced 

 him to perform half a dozen somersaults on the surface of 

 the water ! For some time the struggle was most amusing 

 ' — the fish pulling, and the bird struggling with all its 

 might ; the one attempting to fly, the other to swim, from 

 the invisible enemy, while the fleet of geese and goslings 



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