distances from the shore. For about half an hour
nothing moved j I was just preparing to alter my
position, when out rushed my line, and striking hard,
I believe I fixed the old gentleman himself, for I
had no control over him whatever; holding him was
out of the question; the line flew through my
hands, cntting them till the blood flowed, and I
was obliged to let the fish take his own way : this
he did for about eighty yards, when he suddenly
stopped. This unexpected halt was a great calamity,
for the reel over-ran itself, having no check-wheel,
and the slack bends of the line caught' the handle
just as he again rushed forward, and with a jerk
that nearly pulled the rod from my hands he was
gone! I found one of my large hooks broken short
off; the confounded reel! The fish was a monster!
“ After this bad luck, I had no run until the
evening, when putting on a large bait, and fishing
at the tail of a rock between the stream and still
water, I once more had a grand rush, and hooked
a big one. There were no rocks down stream, all
was fair play and clear water, and away he went
at racing pace straight for the middle of the river.
To check the pace, I grasped the line with the
stuff of my loose trousers, and pressed it between
my fingers so as to act as a break, and compel him
to labour for every yard ; but he pulled like a horse,
and nearly cut through the thick cotton cloth,
making straight running for at least a hundred
yards without a halt. I now put so severe a strain
upon him, that my strong bamboo bent nearly double,
and the fish presently so far yielded to the pressure,
that I could enforce his running in half circles instead
of straight away.; I kept gaining line, until I at
length led him into a shallow bay, and after a great
fight, Bacheet embraced him by falling upon him,
and clutching the monster with hands and knees;
he then tugged to the shore a magnificent fish of
upwards of sixty pounds. For about twenty minutes
he had fought against such a strain as I had never
before used upon a fish, but I had now adopted
hooks of such a large size and thickness that it was
hardly possible for them to break, unless snapped
by a crocodile. My reel was so loosened from the
rod, that had the struggle lasted a few minutes
longer I must have been vanquished. This fish
measured three feet eight inches to the root of the
tail, and two feet three inches in girth of shoulders,
the head measured one foot ten inches in circumference—
it was the same species as those I had
already caught.
“ This closed the sport for the day. We called all
hands to carry the fish to camp, and hoisted the
flag, which was quickly followed by the arrival of
a number of men from Sofi, to receive all that we
could spare. The largest fish we cut into thin strips,
these we salted and dried; the head made delicious
soup, with a tea-spoonful of curry powder.
“ September 26.—The weather is now intensely
hot, and the short spear grass is drying so rapidly