FLY-FISHING. 259 



at the reel ; beside me my best man, slowly drawing 

 in or paying out the line as need must ; both of us 

 eager, anxious, and startled at this new mode of 

 killing salmon ; the fish, vigorous as ever, making 

 continual and sustained rushes, but fortunately none 

 as extended as his first. 



I had freed every screw in the reel, but without 

 any result ; it was as immovable as ever ; there was 

 no resource but to do the best we could, in our origi- 

 nal mode of proceeding, under the circumstances. 

 Never before had a fish proved himself stronger or 

 braver ; for a good half hour he kept us on the 

 stretch, and then sulked. Stationing himself in the 

 edge of the current, he held his own doggedly ; fif- 

 teen minutes of such behavior exhausted our pa- 

 tience. If I tried to lead him towards the shore, he 

 took advantage of the eddy to resist ; if to turn him 

 the other way, he braced himself against the current ; 

 a severe strain, however, brought him to the surface, 

 and revealed the fact that he was not sulking at the 

 bottom, but resolutely swimming, head up stream, in 

 the current. 



Not a little surprised, we tossed in a pebble, then 

 a stone, at last a rock, when, indignant, he fled down 

 stream ; fifteen minutes more of exciting contest, 

 several rushes when he was on the point of being 

 captured, resulted at last in bringing him flouncing 

 on the gaff out of water. He only weighed fifteen 

 pounds, but had been hooked foul, the point having 

 penetrated at the hard bone near the eye. 



I then sat down deliberately to discover what had 



