238 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



spun round my large wooden pirn, brought me to my legs at 

 a spring. To seize the rod and place the butt above my knee, 

 with a good bend at the top, was the work of an instant. 

 Sandy was also active : he gave both oars to Johnny, and 

 began, with his shaky hands, to wind up the other rod out of 

 the way, in case of a collision. I told him always to do so 

 when I hooked a trout. At this moment the gorgeous fish 

 sprang a yard out of the water, coming down with a splash 

 that made the rocks echo. Sandy, at no time very expert, 

 became quite nervous at sight of the monster, and bungled his 

 work sadly. I gave him a push out of my way, and in so 

 doing knocked off his tattered hat into the water' at the bottom 

 of the coble. He only smiled, without a vestige of anger. I 

 saw his thin grey hair, and am happy to recollect that at that 

 exciting moment, ashamed of my impatience, I picked up his 

 hat with my left hand, and placed it on his head, poor Sandy 

 all the time begging me " never to heed it." Sandy's whole 

 heart was in the capture of the fish. His rod was by this 

 time wound up, he was again at the oar, and I had fair play. 

 The ferox bored like a harpooned whale ; sometimes he would 

 change his course, and go down to the bottom, taking forty 

 yards of line, which he made swirl through the water with a 

 humming noise, like a low sound of the telegraph wires. 

 When I shook him up, he would fight away for the middle 

 of the loch. At length he grew weaker, and I got him under 

 command of a short line. It was a beautiful sight that 

 noble fish, sometimes showing his glancing scales for a mo- 

 ment, and then trying to bore under the boat, and always 

 foiled by the boatmen, who promptly obeyed my slightest 

 signal. He now began really to fail, and I felt I could lead 

 him ; so, directing Sandy to a shingly part of the shore, where 

 there were no rocks, I determined to land him there. The 

 beach was very shallow ; and, in spite of my remonstrances, 

 Sandy walked up to his knees in water, and drew the coble 

 ashore. I was now on terra firma, but my fish was by no 



