4 The Atlantic Salmon 



At 9.30 the entire contents of the biggest fly-book 

 would not make one of them stir a fin. For in- 

 stance, Mr. R. Brookes, who pubhshed in 1740 a 

 treatise on angling which went through numerous 

 editions, says, " The most usual baits are a large, 

 gaudy. Artificial Fly, Lob worms, small Dace, 

 Gudgeons, Bleaks and Minnows which should be 

 often varied in order to suit the Humour of the 

 fickle Fish, for what he likes one day he will de- 

 spise the next." Nicholas Cox, whose great work, 

 " The Gentleman's Recreation," antedated Brookes 

 by over half a century, says of the salmon, " he 

 biteth best at 3 of the clock in the afternoon in 

 the months of May, June, July and August," that 

 when obstructed in their passage to the sea " they 

 have grown so impatient that clapping their tails 

 to their mouths with a sudden spring they have 

 leapt clear over Wear or any other obstacle which 

 stood in their way." Mr. Cox also says that there 

 is " no bait more attractive of, and eagerly pursued 

 by Salmon than Lob worms scented with the Oil of 

 Ivy berries or the Oil of Polypodies, or the Oil of 

 Oak mixt with Turpentine; nay, Assa-Foetida 

 they say is incomparably good." I give these 

 examples, which might be indefinitely multiplied, 

 from the earlier angling writers, to show how easily 



