152 SALMONIA. [SIXTH DAY. 



HAL. Hold him tight, or you will lose him. 



POIET. Fear me not. I trust, in spite of his 

 strength, I shall turn him. You see, I show him the 

 but of the rod, and his force is counterpoised by a 

 very long lever. 



HAL. You do well. But he has made a violent 

 spring, and, I fear, is off. 



POIET. He is ; but not, I think, by any fault of 

 mine. He has carried off something. 



HAL. You played that fish so well, that I am 

 angry at his loss. Either the hook, link, or line, 

 failed you. 



POIET. It is the hook, which you see is broken, 

 and not merely at the barb, but likewise in the shank. 

 What a fool I was ever to use one of these London or 

 Birmingham -made hooks. 



HAL. The thing has happened to me often. I 

 now never use any hooks for salmon fishing, except 

 those which 1 am sure have been made by O'Shaugh- 

 nessy, of Limerick ; for even those made in Dublin, 

 though they seldom break, yet they now and then 

 bend : and the English hooks, made of cast steel in 

 imitation of Irish ones, are the worst of all. There 

 is a fly nearly of the same colour as that which is 

 destroyed ; and I can tell you, that I saw it made at 

 Limerick by O'Shaughnessy himself, and tied on one 

 of his own hooks. Should you catch with it a fish 



