48 The American Salmon-fisherman. 



primary object of the click is neither to burden the fish, 

 nor to furnish an orchestral accompaniment to his play. 

 These are both important functions, but they are not the 

 function of the click. It is primarily designed to pre- 

 vent the reel from overrunning. It is said a salmon can 

 swim fifteen hundred feet a minute. I do not know how 

 this is, for I have never measured it; but if it is permis- 

 sible to judge from mere impression, then from fifteen 

 to one hundred and fifty miles is nearer the mark. But 

 moderation is an excellent thing, so let us be moderate 

 and assume sixty miles — or a mile a second — as about the 

 thing. 



N'ow when line is drawn from a reel at any such 

 rate as this, it is clear that the spool must revolve with 

 considerable industry. Salmon are quite self-willed. 

 They never stop to consult the angler as to their move- 

 ments, while they show a decided predilection for ex- 

 actly that which, viewed from the standpoint of the 

 canoe or bank, they ought not to do. They will rush 

 out line with a velocity and in such quantity as to fill 

 the angler with the liveliest apprehension, notwithstand- 

 ing that he follows them down the bank at his best pace, 

 totally regardless of the fact that his shins are fast as- 

 suming the complexion of a huckleberry pie from the ob- 

 stacles which beset the path; or despite the fact that his 

 canoe-men are nearly breaking their backs in the effort 

 to keep within some kind of range. Does he then slow 

 down gradually, and come to a state of rest in an orderly 

 and well-conducted manner ? Not a whit. He bounds 

 into the air like an acrobat, falls back into the water with 

 a splash, and comes to as dead a stop as if converted into 

 one of the stones which line the river-bed. Here he may 



