PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 65 



aeolian music as it stretched and stiffened under the 

 strain to which it was subjected; and for fifty 

 minutes there was such giving and taking, such 

 sulking and rushing, such leaping and tearing, such 

 hoping and fearing, as would have u injected life 

 into the ribs of death," made an anchorite dance in 

 very ecstacy, and caused any true angler to believe 

 that his heart was a kettle drum, every sinew a 

 jews harp, and the whole framework of his excited 

 nerves a full band of music. And during all this 

 time my canoe rendered efficient service in keeping 

 even pace with the eccentric movements of the 

 struggling fish. " Hold him head up, if possible," 

 was the counsel given me, and " make him work 

 for every inch of line." Whether, therefore, he 

 took fifty yards or a foot, I tried to make him pull 

 for it, and then to regain whatever was taken as 

 soon as possible. The result was an incessant click- 

 ing of the reel, either in paying out or in taking in, 

 with an occasional flurry and leap which could have 

 been no more prevented than the on-rushing of a 

 locomotive. Any attempt to have suddenly checked 

 him by making adequate resistance, would have 

 made leader, line or rod a wreck in an instant. All 

 that it was proper or safe to do was to give to each 

 just the amount of strain and pressure it could 

 bear with safety not an ounce more nor an ounce 

 less ; and I believe that I measured the pressure so 

 9 



