134 ANGLIXG SKETCHES 



I said, when there was a long heav}- drag at the 

 line, followed by a shrieking of the reel, as in Mr. 

 William Black's novels. Let it be confessed that 

 the first hooking of a salmon is an excitement 

 unparalleled in trout-fishing. There ha\'e been 

 anglers who, when the salmon was once on, 

 handed him over to the gillie to play and land. 

 One would like to act as gillie to those lordly 

 amateurs. '\\\ own fish rushed down stream, 

 \\here the big tree stands. I had no hope 

 of landing him if he took that course, because 

 one could neither pass the rod under the boughs, 

 nor wade out be)-ond them. But he soon came 

 back, while one took in line, and discussed his 

 probable size with the trout-fisher opposite. His 

 size, indeed ! Nobody knows what it was, for 

 when he had come up to the point whence he 

 had started, he began a polic\- of violent short 

 tugs — not 'jiggering,' as it is called, but plunging 

 with all his weight on the line. I had clean for- 

 gotten the slimness of the tackle, and, as he was 

 clearly well hooked, held him perhaps too hard. 

 Only a ver}- raw beginner likes to take hours over 



