PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 73 



arms seems ready to come out in shreds, is about 

 as wearisome a position as any angler can be 

 placed in ; and it would not be strange if, during 

 some moments of this long tussle, he is inclined to 

 the opinion that, after all, it may be true, as the 

 cynic hath said, that angling is an exercise which 

 requires a rod and line with a worm at one end 

 and a fool at the other. But even such a struggle 

 has its compensations, and every true angler would 

 gladly bear even tenfold the fatigue involved in 

 such labor rather than surrender one iota of the 

 intensely pleasurable excitement he derives from 

 it. But as there is an end to all things, so there is 

 an end to a salmon's sulks. When well nigh 

 weary to exhaustion, and when almost ready to 

 make the effort to force him from his hole if every 

 inch of rod and tackle should be smashed in the 

 effort, the patient angler found the fish rushing 

 as determinedly as he before had sulked. More 

 than two hundred feet of line went out of the reel 

 in a flash ; and it became now even harder to stop 

 than it was before to start him. Rush followed 

 rush in such quick succession that scarcely a yard 

 of line remained in reserve. The only hope was 

 in the equally rapid movement of the canoe. The 

 boatmen were as eager and excited as the fisher- 

 man, and whatever muscle could accomplish was 

 done. It was a race for life on one hand and for 

 10 



