116 AMID THE HIGH HILLS 
the intention of taking the fly, but with the 
intention of drowning it. I struck at him and 
hooked him, as we discovered later, by the tail, 
and a very lively time he gave me. He played 
for about twenty-five minutes, during which time 
he never showed himself, and we all thought he 
was much larger than he turned out to be. He 
was a nice clean fish about Gj lb. By the time 
we got him in the wind had risen, and we began 
to fish again, my brother taking the salmon rod, 
whilst I fished with the trout rod from the bow. 
I had not been fishing for more than a few minutes 
before I rose something which did not show 
itself. I struck, and exclaimed, " I've hooked 
him ! " Away went the line off my reel for about 
thirty yards, and at the end of this run the fish, a 
salmon which looked considerably larger than the 
one we had already caught, jumped right out of 
the water, high into the air. Then began the 
longest and most exciting struggle I have ever 
had with any fish. The rod with which I was 
fishing was a light 11 -feet trout rod ; the cast was 
a medium-sized trout cast, and I had on my reel 
about forty to fifty yards of medium-sized trout- 
line. There is no doubt that I should have 
several times lost the fish had it not been for the 
