TROUT-FISHING. 187 



scarcely touched the water, when it was seized by 

 a trout weighing over a pound. I had neither landing- 

 net nor gaft. My rod was a long, elastic one, by no 

 means calculated to lift a fish of that size from the 

 water, and I had to play him till drowned or ex- 

 hausted, so that I could draw him gently upon the 

 shelving rock. 



I took at this place a trout that I have no doubt 

 would weigh two and a half pounds, and singularly 

 enough, I " hooked" him, not in the mouth, but 

 through the back fin, close down to the back. Him I 

 could not, of course, drown, and the fight we had was 

 exciting enough. He bent my rod like a reed, in his 

 mad efforts to escape. He went skimming away 

 through the water, making my reel buzz again. 

 Holding him always taught, he would for a moment 

 seem to surrender, and then as I reeled him in, would 

 go skiving away with renewed strength to the bottom, 

 now floundering on the surface, now glancing 

 away across the swift current, diving down towards 

 the bottom, and again leaping above the water, dart- 

 ing here and there and everywhere, in his hard strug- 

 gle for life. Strange as it may seem, the hook held in 

 the strong cartilage of his back fin, until clean ex- 



