254- PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 



my light fly rod in the swiftest water, when 1 

 had a strike which indicated unusual muscle. My 

 click-reel flew round like a mill-spindle. I an- 

 swered the call for "more line" until a hundred 

 feet interposed between my slender tip and the 

 fish, when I " cried a halt," as it was absolutely 

 necessary to prevent him from passing over a rock 

 which showed its foam-covered crest in his imme- 

 diate neighborhood. This I found a difficult thing 

 to do in such furious rapids, with the delicate rod 

 from which the line depended. The heavy strain 

 upon it had given it the curve of a perfect semi- 

 circle, and I was apprehensive that the addition of 

 a single ounce would prove more than it could 

 bear ; but to reel up was a necessity. If the fish 

 reached the impetuous current which passed on 

 either side of the bowlder, something would break 

 in the effort to check him. It was at this moment, 

 when the contest was at its height, that two large 

 trout revealed themselves as my prisoners. This 

 revelation added to the interest of the contest, and 

 seemed to render victory on my side entirely hope- 

 less. But after twenty minutes of such intense 

 excitement as only anglers will comprehend, I 

 landed them both, without the aid of net or gaff ; 

 and they weighed together four pounds and a quar- 

 ter, one weighing two pounds, and the other two 

 pounds and four ounces. It would have been 



