A Sportsman at Large 273 



all the ways and wiles of the local salmon. He knew where 

 to fish and when to fish ; whilst his stroke with the gaff 

 was one of deadly accuracy. 



The first of the bigger fish fell to Marcus, who had arisen 

 at four o'clock one morning for the purpose of fishing the 

 Aasen Pool with a prawn. He was attended by Lars. 

 When Tolle and I came down, an hour later, we found the last- 

 named on the strand. But Marcus himself had returned to 

 the Hiis to snatch a hurried breakfast. 



" Any sport ? " I inquired of his boatman. 



" One fish, twenny-seex pund." 



" Oh, lead me to it ! " I said. 



Sure enough, there on the grass, beside the boat-house, 

 lay a beautiful hen-fish of the weight mentioned ; a great bar 

 of silver and steel-blue, with the sea-lice still adhering to her 

 shimmering scales. 



This was a good omen for my own sport, so I lost no time 

 in getting to work. 



I had one or two rises at the " Wilkinson " with which I was 

 fishing, and managed to pull out a nice fifteen-pounder. There 

 followed a slack time ; but, as Tolle suggested, I fixed up a 

 prawn and started harling. A few lengths from the furthest 

 swim, off the point of the estuary, a tremendous " rug " 

 proved that something of extra size had attached itself. I 

 don't think I will trouble you with a description of the fight 

 which followed. Not only is one such so like another, but 

 I must reserve details for a description of the desperate struggle 

 which, later on, I waged with the biggest salmon I have ever 

 caught. This will be narrated anon. Suffice it to say that 

 the present customer kept me in a state of nervous excitement 

 and muscular endeavour for some twenty minutes before 

 we landed on the strand, where I put on the final pressure 

 and Tolle waded in to gaff and lift it ashore, a magnificent 

 cock-fish of forty-two pounds ! 



It tickled my fancy to have a mild joke at the expense of 

 Marcus ; so I removed his fish to another spot and covered it 

 with grass, dumping my monster in its place. 



By and by, down came my young friend from the Hiis, 

 all eagerness to renew the attack. 



18 



