130 SUMMER ANGLING 



climbed lightly on to the beam. Very soon I was 

 sitting astride it, and deftly casting the brilliant 

 minnow, and manoeuvring it from cataract to eddy 

 through the myriad jewelled spray. As it skipped 

 and danced from crest to crest, it seemed like some 

 silvern butterfly rather than a fish. Herein lay its 

 attraction ; and before I had fished twenty minutes 

 the great tortoise-shell shoulders of a big trout 

 heaved above the torrent, and with a determined 

 plunge he had seized the bait, and sunk for his 

 watery lair. How well I remember the thrill of 

 awe-like ecstasy I felt ! And then began the bat- 

 tle. I will not attempt its description. Such com- 

 bats have been portrayed by more masterly pens 

 than mine. It is sufficient to say that, from my 

 high post, it was one of tragic interest to me as 

 well as the fish; and just as the latter seemed to 

 become sufficiently amenable to reason to allow of 

 my seeking the shore, with a view to landing him, 

 I remember the top of my head seemed to be 

 swimming off somewhere ; then the water became 

 sheets of silver flame — I staggered, recovered my- 

 self, for I had risen on the narrow bridge, the bet- 

 ter to traverse it shoreward ; then the loose line 

 dropped from my left hand, and, without further 



