THE BIG FISH. 
69 
was renewed as though it would never end. 
Finally, after a struggle of one hour and forty 
minutes, fought out down two miles of water, 
he had to give in and I gaffed him. The fisher¬ 
man was nearly as exhausted as the fish. He 
weighed twenty-one kilos, honest weight; or 
forty-six pounds. 
The fight had no particular incident. It was 
the longest of any we had, and the only weari¬ 
some one. But there are some points about it 
interesting to the fisherman, for it raises the 
question of the strength of dorado compared to 
salmon. I have never killed a salmon of over 
forty pounds, though 1 have over thirty; so it is 
hard to compare : and dorado are fished for on 
very much stronger tackle, and on a larger and 
wilder river. All these facts complicate a 
judgment. But no one who has fished for both 
will dispute that the first rush of a dorado is 
far stronger than that of a salmon of the same 
size. It is faster, longer and heavier. It is 
like nothing else in the world. Before you have 
time to think, one hundred yards have whizzed 
off your reel and a great fish is rushing first in 
one direction and then another, hurling himself 
out of the water, crashing back into it with a 
bang, and shaking himself in mad fury at his 
restraint. That is true and it is all in favour 
of the dorado. But a salmon has the advantage 
in one point. He has more resource; for he can 
fight in still water as strongly as in swift. A 
