206 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 



" Proceeding, thus equipped, a few yards up the 

 stream, I allowed my bait to drop gently into the 

 centre of a strong, dark-coloured eddy, within which 

 it was no sooner enveloped, than I became sensible 

 of its being seized by a pair of powerful jaws. Im- 

 mediately also, a steady determination thereof to- 

 wards the opposite bank warned me to give out line 

 with my hand from the reel. On finding this, how- 

 ever, speedily exhausted by the determined progress 

 of the fish across the stream, I thought it proper to 

 strike sharply ; and no sooner, gentlemen, was this 

 accomplished, than there came at once to view the 

 fluke of a prodigious tail, announcing to me the pre- 

 sence of a fish at least five stone in weight ! ( Great 

 cheering?) 



" I do not exaggerate I am incapable of exagge- 

 rating. Five stone ! be it repeated, was the weight 

 of this fish ; and the sequel, gentlemen, should you 

 listen to me, will remove all doubts of my veracity. 



"Before I could well recover from the astonishment 

 caused in me by the partial display of such a mon- 

 ster, he commenced ascending the river at an able 

 pace, but by no means so rapidly as to occasion his 

 pursuer over-much distress. In fact, to my best 

 recollection, I was not constrained to yield above 

 four fathoms of line during the whole run, which 

 lasted fifteen minutes at a moderate calculation, and 

 took me a mile's distance from the spot where I first 

 encountered him. When at length the fish halted, 

 which he did with singular suddenness, and more 



