SALMON ANGLING. 117 



with a forty-four), the writer can aver, that he does 

 not conceive that from the moment he has hooked . 

 such until he was laid on the grass, he ever, for an 

 instant, had three ounces of more or less pull on the 

 fish ; for in all circumstances of run, regularity of 

 pull is the sure test of true skill, and it leads to final 

 success. Indeed, I have seen many a fine fish laid on 

 the dry gravel, when the hold of the hook in the lip 

 of his mouth was so slight as to be smaller than the 

 steel of the hook : so much for equal pull and cau- 

 tious management in the run. In short, a man is 

 never a master angler so long as a desire to have his 

 hooked fish to land excites in his feelings the least 

 agitation, as the matter should be managed with 

 that cool philosophical ease of mind, which is alike 

 above the paltry calculations of loss and gain, and 

 the common ridicule which often tends to stir up a 

 degree of childish fretfulness. This perfect ease is 

 absolutely necessary to first-rate excellence and ulti- 

 mate success. 



