ENGLISH RIVERS. 121 



Weser, when I have seen them, were too 

 foul for fly fishing; and in the Rhine, in 

 Switzerland, and its tributary streams, I have 

 never seen a salmon rise. I once hooked a 

 fish, under the fall at SehafFausen, which in 

 my youthful ardour I thought was a salmon, 

 but it turned out to be an immense chub — a 

 villanous and provoking substitute. And 

 our islands, as far as I know, may claim the 

 superiority over all other lands for this 

 species of amusement. In England it is, 

 however, a little difficult to get a day's 

 salmon fishing. The best river I know of 

 is the Derwent, that flows from the beautiful 

 Lake of Keswick ; and I caught once, in Oc- 

 tober, a very large salmon there, and raised 

 another; but it is only late in the autumn 

 that there is any chance of sport there, 

 though I have heard the spring salmon fish- 

 ing boasted of. At Whitwell, in the Had- 

 der, I have heard of salmon and sea trout 

 being taken — but I have never fished in that 

 river. The late Lord Bolinbroke caught 

 many salmon at Christchurch ; but a fish 

 a week is as much as can be expected in 



