Part 18 (2/2)
”Going out again?” queried Colin
”I thought you ,” was the answer; ”you said you were going down to Santa Catalina, and you et your hand in You can stay over another day, can't you?”
”I suppose I could,” Colin answered, ”and I should like to catch a really big salmon with a rod and line, not only for the fun of it, but because I happen to know that Father's never caught one, and I'd like to beat hiet ahead of Dad!”
The professor shook his head with ood ht to increase any boy's stock of conceit It is usually quite big enough But , and I'll chance it”
”Oh, but I will catch one,” Colin declared confidently; ”I'et one of the hundred-pounders that I've read about”
”You'll have a long sail, then,” his host replied, ”because fish of that size don't come far south of Alaskan waters Twenty-five or thirty pounds is as big as you can look for, and even those will give you all the sport you want”
”Very well,” Colin responded, a little abashed, ”I'll be satisfied”
”It's rather a pity,” the professor said, when, after lunch, they had started for the fishi+ng-grounds in a so up to The Dalles to see the sal up the falls and the rapids I think it's one of the hts in the world”
”I've seen the Atlantic salmon jump small falls,” Colin said, ”but I don't think I ever saw one larger than ten or twelve pounds”
”I have seen hundreds of the at falls in the s twenty or thirty in the air at a ti with the thousands of fish threshi+ng the water before their leap”
”How high can they jump?” asked Colin
”About sixteen foot sheer stops even the best of them,” the professor said, ”but there are not many direct falls like that Nearly all rapids and falls are in jumps of five or six feet, and salmon can take that easily Still, there is a fall nearly twenty feet high that some salmon must have leaped, for a few have been found above it, and they must either have leaped up or walked round--there's no other way”
”How do you suppose they did it?”
”In a very high wind, probably,” the professor answered; ”a gale blowing up the canyon h leap”
As soon as they were about fourthe professor's exa copper and nickel spoon sank slowly, and the boy paid out about a hundred feet of line Taking up the oars and with the rod ready to hand, Colin rowed slowly, parallel with the shore Two or three ti followed by soh in the distance there see definite appeared, and he forgot it for the ot the first strike
With the characteristic scream, the reel shrilled out, and the fish took nearly a hundred feet of line, but the angler held the brake so hard that the strain rapidly exhausted the fish, and when it turned toward the boat, the professor's deft fingers reeled at such a speed that the line wound in almost as rapidly as the rush of the fish As soon as the salmon saw the boat it tried to break away, but its captor had caught a glie for speedy action, reeled in without loss of tiaffed him promptly
[Illustration: THIRTY-POUND ATLANTIC SALMON LEAPING FALLS AND RAPIDS IN A NEWFOUNDLAND RIVER
_By permission of H K Burrison_]
[Illustration: EIGHTY-POUND PACIFIC SALMON LEAPING WATERFALL ON AN ALASKA RIVER
_Courtesy of the U S Bureau of Fisheries_]
”Small chinook,” he said, as he tossed him into the boat