40 The American Salmon-fisherman. 



thought would weigh nearly if not quite forty pounds, 

 was lost after one hour and thirty minutes' play. I 

 brought it in to the bank, but at the approach of the 

 gaffer it rallied, and made a sharp run of some sixty or 

 seventy yards. I followed it down stream, and had grad- 

 ually worked it in again until it was about . thirty or 

 forty feet distant. It was then a very sick fish, fre- 

 quently rolling upon its side, as it came in with little or 

 no resistance except that produced by the friction of the 

 water. Then the last shred of skin which held the hook 

 gave way, and it escaped. These are the times that try 

 men's souls — as well as their morals. 



I lost another fish which I thought still larger. We 

 had had it hot and heavy for thirty minutes, and I had 

 worked him in quite near the bank, when down came an 

 island of floating logs. At this inopportune moment the 

 salmon started for the opposite shore at race-horse speed, 

 passing just below the floating logs in his course. I 

 thrust my rod under water nearly half its length in the 

 hope that the obstruction might thus pass over the line. 

 But when one hundred and ten yards were out something 

 fouled it, and a leader tested to eight pounds parted, and 

 the fish escaped. 



Of the whole lot of twenty-five fish actually reduced to 

 possession, the majority were of twenty pounds or over, 

 besides others not mentioned above, which were lost after 

 a contest of greater or less duration. These fish were all 

 " fresh-run," and were taken about four miles above tide- 

 water. When I have used the term " fish," salmon are to 

 be understood in every instance. Indeed, nothing else 

 is considered worthy of that name in a salmon-stream. 



This, it seems to me, is a pretty fair test of the simple 



