SALMON-FISHING. 85 



thereof and goes down bodily to the next pool, 

 Tofte. I have no objection to this, even if I 

 had a voice in the matter; I have a flat smooth 

 meadow to race over, the stream has no hidden 

 rocky dangers, so, like swift Camilla, I scour the 

 plain till the deeper and quieter recesses of Tofte 

 afford an asylum for the fish and breathing time 

 to myself. Here, I hope, but hope in vain, to 

 decide the combat ; occasionally I contrive to gain 

 the advantage of a short line, but the instant he 

 perceives the water shoaling away he bores in- 

 dignant, and spurns the shallow. The engagement 

 has now lasted more than an hour, and my 

 shoulders are beginning to ache, and yet no 

 symptoms of submission on the part of my adver- 

 sary ; on the contrary, he suddenly reassumes the 

 offensive, and with a rush which imparts such rotatory 

 motion to my reel as to render the handle not 

 only intangible but actually invisible, he forsakes 

 the delights of Tofte, and continues his course down 

 the river. I must take to the boat again (I have 



