Salmon-fishing — Catohing the Fish. 159 



regains control of himself, when we first walk toward the 

 bank taking in the line we have gained, and then move 

 down stream as before. Again we work below him with 

 the same result, and again, and again. He is now not 

 twenty feet from the bank.* 



But clearly he is now of the mind that this thing has 

 gone quite far enough, for he is as immovable as the 

 everlasting hills. Ten — fifteen — twenty minutes pass, and 

 it is still " pull Dick, pull Devil." Our arms now ache as 

 though they would drop off at the elbow-joint. " Stone 

 him, Tom — do something — I can't stand this much longer." 

 So Tom tosses in stone after stone — none of them large 

 and none of them thrown with violence, lest they strike 

 and part the leader — seemingly without effect. 



At last the reel begins to move. It speaks slowly at 



* At this point in the contest the angler may with profit recall 

 that law of mechanics, which teaches that the resistance offered by 

 the click to the withdrawal of the line varies with the diameter of 

 the coil of line on the reel. "With my own reel, for example, when 

 this diameter is one inch, the salmon must, to gain another foot, 

 pull three pounds ; while when the fish is but thirty or forty feet 

 from the tip, a pull of half a pound only is necessary. Sulkiness in 

 a salmon is no more agreeable than a like manifestation in a child. 

 When the salmon is close at hand, then, it is well to remonstrate 

 with a little more firmness than the unaided resistance of the click 

 will permit. This is best done by supporting the rod with one hand, 

 and gently pinching the line above the reel with the thumb and fore- 

 finger of the other. The pressure should but add say a pound to 

 the resistance of the click, not check the line absolutely. The mo- 

 ment the salmon evinces a change of tactics, the line should be re- 

 leased. 



Where flsh run twenty pounds or over, a socket at the waist to 

 support the butt of the rod will add greatly to the comfort of the 

 angler during a protracted contest. 



