UNACCOUNTABLE SALMON- PREDILECTIONS. 71 



and of the river Erne. The salmon of other rivers 

 despise them. In Tweed water they would be fish- 

 frights.' There, salmon prefer Nubian beauty — 

 for instance, the dusky " Toppy " of plate No. 5. 

 Behold me now in another dilemma. Is the fly 

 called " The Goldfinch," or that called " The 

 Shannon," bred on the banks of that famous 

 river ? Does the Tweed produce black insects, with 

 wings tipped with white, like " The Toppy ? " 

 I wish somebody would say, " Yes ; " and produce 

 specimens. If " The Goldfinch " were a general 

 fly, if " The Shannon " or " The Toppy " were 

 one, I should not be confused as I am, for then I 

 should see that one general taste prevailed amongst 

 salmon, that it was as regular as most of their habits 

 are in every river, whether near or far apart ; 

 whereas, the tastes or likings of salmon for flies 

 differ and contrast as widely as any set of rare-ree 

 things, collected from every point of the compass, 

 and jumbled together in kaleidescope-confusion. 

 No man, out of Hanwell, can, if he considers 

 what I have just said, imagine for an instant that 

 a salmon takes a salmon-fly as being the '^ coun- 

 terfeit presentment " of any sort of edible it has 

 ever tasted. It takes it imquestionably for some 

 animated, edible substance ; and that is all I know 

 about the matter. 



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