186 AN ANGLER AT LARGE 



There is something superhuman about such con- 

 duct. 



Now, it is impossible and would be ungrateful 

 to doubt the correctness of the weighing machine 

 used by a fisherman so notable as is Chavender. It 

 would also be idiotic. I have accepted his verdict 

 upon my balance without a murmur. 



So I have been catching great fishes all summer. 

 I have been returning to their stream trouts a 

 pound and a half heavy as beneath my considera- 

 tion, and only the greatest anglers do this. My 

 rare two-pounders have been two -and-a- half- 

 pounders, and as all two-and-a-half-pounders really 

 weigh three, three pounds has been the actual 

 weight of these fishes. Yes, I have been enjoying 

 my sport far more than I have done. I am vastly 

 beholden to Chavender. And I find that I must 

 revise the sport of a lifetime. Mine is an old 

 weighing machine, and surely it is reasonable to 

 suppose that the older a spring is the slacker it 

 gets. Now all my fishes have been weighed on 

 this spring. Who knows how grossly it was out 

 five or six years ago. I daresay as much as a 

 pound or a pound and a half. This proves some 

 of the fishes which I caught in those days to have 

 been colossal. Hitherto I have boasted of nothing 

 heavier than three pounds. I can safely call that 

 greatest trout a four-and-a-half-pounder. If notfive. 



