398 THE SALMON FLY. 



The engraving depicts a memorable fish of about 16 Ibs. It is a- 

 splendid sight to see these fine fellows get the line taut and fight it out on 

 their tails. This one gave me the hardest tussle I ever had. Sometimes, 

 and, indeed, more often than not, they commence operations by taking 

 across the river, and then sweeping up gently from the water, rest on 

 their tails, and shake their heads in the most violent manner. On these 

 occasions you have once more to break the rule which says, " never let a 

 Salmon have a slack line," for if you fail to do so in good time by dropping 

 the point of the rod, he will break you, as sure as fate. 



But do what you may, the odds are very much against success if an 

 abominable snag in the shape of a dead tree is allowed- to rest from the 

 shore over the original haunt of the fish half in, half out of water, or if 

 you are debarred from taking him up or down, as I was. You may get 

 the better of him in the open, for in " dancing " he cannot break the 

 tackle when the line is loose, though he will soon make to his corner and 

 claim " foul," and often run foul of the snag. They nearly all do this. 

 After beating mine in the first " round " or two, he did it; and yet he 

 was not happy, for I pulled off a lot of line, switched as much as I could 

 over the water, at least ten yards above the snag, put the point of the rod 

 down on the bed of the river, waited till'the sinking slack part had been 

 washed a little below, and then wound] up, finding myself in command 

 once again. Not once, but twice did the same remedy bring him up to 

 time. There he would lie and spin round and round on the surface ; when 

 all of a sudden, feeling the butt, down-stream he went, " ducks and 

 drakes," over the bough he leapt, back he came to dance in front of me, 

 and bid me adieu as full of life as ever ! 



But what about those natural surroundings I was talking of light 

 and shade and so on ? 



I have, by the way, really begun to ask myself, with increasing fre- 

 quency of late, how these things will look in print, disconnected as they 

 are, though as I intended them to be. The arrangement is bad. But the 

 fact remains that, in getting through various topics by the convenient 

 process of division, I have been enabled to bring out the strong points in 

 suitable and fitting places. Had these matters been heaped together 

 many of them might have been easily overlooked. I have written of them 



