PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 71 



him to gaff. He sulked, plunged, leaped and 

 rushed as impetuously at the end of the hour as 

 during the first five minutes after he was hooked. 

 He made no sign of surrender or weariness, and 

 was in one of his worst tantrums when the reel 

 dogged. Any one with less experience and per- 

 sistency than the General would have " thrown up 

 the sponge " at such a mishap ; but he was equal 

 to the emergency. The canoe was forced rapidly 

 forward to the beach, which was fortunately unob- 

 structed; the General leaped upon terra firma 

 with the agility of an acrobat, and after an active 

 backward and forward movement of half an hour, 

 manipulating his line with his hand, he bagged his 

 game, saved his tackling, and brought to camp a 

 thirty-four-pound salmon. Not one angler in a 

 thousand would have achieved such a victory, and 

 he deserved the congratulations he received when 

 the magnificent fish was formally spread out for 

 inspection. 



And to this incident there is a moral. The reel 

 which thus clogged at the most critical moment, 

 was made with special reference to extra heavy 

 work, was warranted as superior to any reel which 

 had ever found its way upon salmon waters, and 

 cost a fabulous sum of money. But it was a delu- 

 sion and a cheat as worthless as tow string for a 

 salmon line and the .cause of harsher words with 



