A Sportsman 341 



hook's failing to fasten, he will again engage, and 

 having secured but a portion of the vanishing bait 

 will seize the remainder — if but a mere shred — and 

 in his voraciousness become impaled; and I have 

 several times taken a salmon which, taking in his 

 first strike a portion of the bait, and hooked with a 

 slight hold, has again struck the remnant of bait 

 and, well hooked, been brought to gaff, which exhib- 

 ited the wound from the first strike. 



On one occasion I caught a large salmon of some 

 twenty-five pounds, which struck fiercely and fought 

 hard, but was in a very bad condition from two wounds 

 gained in an encovmter with one of the market fisher- 

 men, but otherwise in good condition of flesh. The 

 wounds told the story. It had one side of its jaw 

 and mouth cut badly by a torn-out hook, and a severe 

 cut between its ventral and anal fins of three inches 

 in length and equal in width — where a gaff had torn 

 out. The gaff had penetrated nearly through the 

 salmon. It was evident that he had been well hooked 

 and gaffed, but brought in speedily by the fisherman 

 with his hea^y line and hook while still full of life. In 

 the clumsy and hasty work of the fisherman, one of 

 the holes had torn out and afterwards the other, and 

 the salmon went free, to finally fall a victim to my hook 

 and gaff. It seemed hardly likely that this salmon 

 could have survived the belly wound, yet he had not 

 indicated any failing courage in striking my bait, or in 

 his play. 



I am reminded of a shark I once hooked in the 

 Gulf of Mexico with a junk of salt pork and a chain 

 hook — from the ship Western Star, long years ago — 

 when I was a passenger on the ship on a passage 



