14 SALMON FISHING IN CANADA. 



of my tormentor. After waiting for a while I resolved to 

 endeavour to put my landing net under where he ought to 

 be, according to my calculations ; in effecting which, as 

 fortune would have it, the net caught in my bob fly, and 

 at the same moment my foe made another rush down the 

 stream. I suffered the landing net to go along with him, 

 and followed as I could, sometimes up to my middle, some- 

 times clothed in water to my armpits, and frequently 

 falling on my face, and with much difficulty regaining my 

 feet, encumbered as I was with my pockets full of trout as 

 well as my basket. My patience was nearly exhausted : 

 at last, after following down and down the stream, I ascer- 

 tained that he had again stopped, and when I approached 

 the place where I considered that he was, I perceived the 

 landing net caught between two stones, and determined, 

 whatever might be the consequences, to give up sounding 

 the bed of the river, and betake me to the shore. I there- 

 fore seized the net with a bold hand, and strode recklessly 

 towards the bank; fortunately, at this place the bottom 

 consisted of gravel, so that I could keep my footing steadily, 

 and directing my steps to where the surface of the meadow 

 dipped lowest towards tfre water, I came upon the very 

 spot where a drain or grasscut emptied itself into the river : 

 I walked up into it, drawing the landing net gradually, 

 and the weight attached to it, after me ; as I proceeded I 

 found the drain grew narrower and narrower, when the 

 idea occurred to me of pushing on, until the fish, if fish it 



