CHRISTOPHER IN HIS SPORTING JACKET 



and lithe to its topmost tenuity as the elephant's pro- 

 boscis — the hiccory and the horn without twist, knot, 

 or flaw — from butt to fly a faultless taper, "fine by 

 degrees and beautifully less,"" the beau-ideal of a rod 

 by the skill of cunning craftsman to the senses mate- 

 rialized! A fish — fat, fair, and forty! "She is a salmon, 

 therefore to be woo'd — she is a salmon, therefore to 

 be won**' — but shy, timid, capricious, headstrong, now 

 wrathful and now full of fear, like any other female 

 whom the cruel artist has hooked by lip or heart, and, 

 in spite of all her struggling, will bring to the gasp at 

 last; and then with calm eyes behold her lying in the 

 shade dead, or worse than dead, fast-fading, and to be 

 re-illumined no more the lustre of her beauty, insen- 

 sible to sun or shower, even the most perishable of all 

 perishable things in a world of perishing! — But the 

 salmon has grown sulky, and must be made to spring 

 to the plunging stone. There, suddenly, instinct with 

 new passion, she shoots out of the foam like a bar of 

 silver bullion; and, relapsing into the flood, is in an- 

 other moment at the very head of the waterfall ! Give 

 her the butt — give her the butt — or she is gone for 

 ever with the thunder into ten fathom deep! — Now 

 comes the trial of your tackle — and when was Phin 

 ever known to fail at the edge of cliff" or cataract? 

 Her snout is southwards — right up the middle of the 

 main current of the hill-born river, as if she would 

 [8] 



