178 How I Became a Sportsmax. 



the vexation and disappointment were not at 

 all lessened by knowing that it was entirely my 

 own fault. I often looked under that bush 

 afterwards, but never without a feeling of the 

 most intense disgust at my own stupidity and 

 clumsiness. 



I remember once having a very odd adven- 

 ture with a salmon. I was staying at that 

 cheery little place, Lynmouth, North Devon, 

 when one showery morning I was walking 

 about with an umbrella ; the tide had nearly 

 gone out, and I saw something floundering 

 about just at the mouth of the river Lynn ; 

 the water was getting shallower every moment. 

 I waded in and found a good-sized salmon, 

 who had stayed a little too long, trying to 

 make his way out to sea. I tried to bag him 

 with the umbrella by way of a landing net, 

 and once succeeded in getting him into it ; but 

 he made very short work of it as a landing-net, 

 or for its original and more legitimate con- 

 struction, so I shut it up and began belabour- 

 ing him with it. He was in water nearly deep 

 enough to cover him, all but his back, and 

 upon that I showered blow after blow ; but the 

 umbrella being a light one, and the water 



