A " STRIKE AND CATCH. 89 



celerity with which he followed him in all his manoeuvres ; 

 the skill with which he enabled me, coaxingly, to draw him 

 into the still water at the head of the pool ; and the deadlj^ 

 certainty with which, on the first opportunity, he fixed 

 the cruel gaff in his side ; all this I spare the reader, con- 

 tenting myself with stating that at the end of about twenty- 

 five minutes, the " water angel,'' as a Yankee writer calls 

 the salmon, was tested as to weight, and found to be rather 

 more than twelve pounds. 



Again I prepare my fiery brown for a throw, having 

 found him unruffled and uninjured by the late encounter. 

 Two, three, four, five times I flung him forth so as to 

 descend as lightest gossamer upon the sparkling waters, 

 at each throw drawing about a foot of line off my reel. 

 About the sixth throw there was a lash and a flash as my 

 fly floated from the stream into the still water, and I felt 

 an evident strain upon rod and line ; but too soon it was 

 clear that though a fish had risen at it, and toiiched it, he 

 had escaped the bait. As it becomes all prudent fisher- 

 men to do in such circumstances, I then examined my fly, 

 and found that the hook was broken off exactly in the 

 middle of the bend. To search my fly-box and find 

 another similar fiery brown, did not take me half the 

 time which it took me mentally to objurgate Martin 

 Kelly, whose hook I believed had broken against some 

 bony part in the fish's mouth. 



Again I cautiously and deftly proceeded to throw my 



