RUN WITH A TROUT IN BREAMISH. Ill 



minnow in the Breamish, and of which I was a wit- 

 ness. 



After giving a few lusty shakes, to feel what was the 

 matter, Mr. Trout turned sharp round and shot off like 

 an arrow to the far side of the pool, birling out some 

 twenty or thirty yards of line ; when, not at a]l relishing 

 the sturdy efforts of the minnow, seemingly endowed with 

 supernatural strength and vindictiveness, to convey him, 

 nolens volens, ashore, he next bounded three times high 

 into the air, apparently in as unamiable a humour as a 

 pig fast in a gate, with the design, no doubt, of shaking 

 off his pertinacious little enemy. My friend, being an old 

 veteran, knew well how to play a heavy fish when struck, 

 and kept his rod well elevated upon the bend, so as to 

 maintain a constant steady pull upon him, being well 

 aware that the elasticity of the rod and line combined 

 would soon bring Mr. Trout to a more submissive mood. 

 The most critical part of the business was to prevent him 

 from snapping the line with his tail, during those deter- 

 mined saltatory plunges he made, evidently with that 

 intention. But this his antagonist cleverly defeated by 

 judiciously slacking his line at each bound, and imme- 

 diately resuming the pressure the moment he again fell 

 into the water. This is at all times a dangerous 

 manoeuvre on the part of a fish. If the pressure of the 

 rod is continued, and the line remains strict, it is very 

 apt to be snapped in two by a flounce of the tail ; while, if 

 the line is promptly slackened, as it is best to do, there 

 is considerable risk of the hook being shaken from its 

 hold, during the short time the spring of the rod is re- 



