300 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



action of the water and the strain it had so lately success- 

 fully withstood. To get my line clear away to the requi- 

 site length I threw across" the surging portion of the stream 

 and dipped my tip, to prevent any unnecessary delay when 

 I reached my friend's ambush ; a couple of casts brought 

 me to the spot, and with careful, steady hand and measured 

 throw I placed my fly, straight as a bee-line* a few yards 

 above where my prey was supposed to be lodged ; and with 

 that regular motion that resembles the passage of a shrimp 

 through the water I brought the bright, fascinating decep- 

 tion toward me, the current at the same time carrying it 

 downward. Description, particularly if you enter into de- 

 tail, is always longer than action. My handsome imitation 

 of what? for a similar living fly I never saw was a foot 

 or two above the desired eddy, when a splash, a flourish of 

 a broad dark tail, answered by my quick, nervous hand giv- 

 ing an electric strike, fastened me to a splendid fish. As 

 man and animals choose different methods of assault or de- 

 fense, so this salmon selected a different course to free him- 

 self. The hook had scarcely been in him when four times 

 he sprang with determined energy from his watery home, 

 each spring causing me, in courtesy, to lower the point of 

 my weapon, as an inferior would salute a senior officer; 

 but this steeple-chase escapade had not the desired effect, 

 and the salmon, comprehending this, altered his plan of 

 combat, and settled down deep in the pellucid river, although 

 far from conquered. An occasion of this kind is a trying 

 ordeal, and often as dangerous to the tackle as any strata- 

 gem that is put in practice ; in fact, I have thought that it 

 is pursued for the purpose of rubbing their snouts on the 

 rocks or gravel, as frequently I have found, after killing a 



*A common Americanism, originating from loaded bees always flying 

 straight to their home. 



