saw. All the tactics familiar to experience^,! anglers were 

 tried in this battle for supremacy, and at the end of half an 

 hour I was nearly exhausted. I stood in tne bow of the 

 skiff, and the trout in his swift gyrations would spin mc 

 round and round until 1 felt dizzy and weak. ^Thcn a^^nin 

 he would leap from the water, sometimes jumping over 

 the boat, and apparently trying to entangle the line about 

 my neck for the purpose of strang- 

 ling me. Sometimes he would leap 

 back and forth, forming a perfect 

 curve perhaps fifty feet in extent, and 

 hi^ njjp^v.qBfin}:]iW>cere so -ifapid that 1 

 seemed to see a rainbow of colors before my 

 eyes. Once he struck the boat, and the shock 

 nearly threw me overboard. 



The guide shared my excitement but man- 

 aged to keep an outward show of coolness, and his de\lcrit\ in 

 the boat prevented it from being overturned. At last, after a 

 fierce struggles the trout was brought within reach of the landing^ 

 carefully lifted into the boat, where we found by using the pocket scales 

 which I had brought with me that the fish weighed a full half pound, and 

 I have always believed that he was even heavier when making "Wk fight in 

 the water. , .. 



A COAT TAIL AND FISH TALE. 



Well, I never had any great luck in fishing, said 

 Mr. George H. Reager, of Philadelphia, but I once had 

 a rather peculiar experience down on the Lycoming in 

 Pennsylvania, with my friend Sylvanus. We spent 

 the whole forenoon fishing, but the sun shone hot, and 

 neither of us had caught a fin. Finally I stopped for 

 lunch, put my basket on the l)ank, and sat down on a 

 log over the stream, in a shaded nook. I hadn't been 

 there a minute when I felt a jerk at my coat tail, but I 

 knew it was my friend, trying to startle or scare me, so 

 I refused to look around. I just gave my coat a pull 

 and loosened it, and then went on with my lunch. 



This happened several times, until finally my 

 patience was exhausted and I jerked my coat tail away 



56 



