158 HABITS OF SALMON, 



do not move from the immediate neighbourhood 

 of the pool the last flood has left them in, either 

 by night or day. And thus they are stationary to 

 that, and only that, extent; for the moment a 

 fresh of water comes down from the mountains, 

 we find them leaving the pool for the shallows 

 above, and can trace their journeys upwards. 

 Therefore before the river thickens, and as 

 soon as it begins to clear after a flood, the best 

 places to fish for them, are the fords and shallows 

 above these deep pools. It is singular, however, 

 that whenever you once hook a salmon, at a given 

 spot, you may almost with certainty expect to 

 find another supplying his place when he is dead 

 or gone ! So that there must be something in each 

 spot they choose peculiarly adapted to them. 

 Speaking, however, of the salmon not descending 

 a river they have once entered, and looking at it 

 in a very limited sense, there is one most import- 

 ant thing always at every throw, to be borne in 

 mind ; namely, that no fish seems to relish going 

 down-stream, in pursuit of prey ; a salmon, espe- 

 cially, will seldom if ever rise at the fly, if it 

 be allowed to be carried too straight down-stream, 

 and it requires the greatest attention so to manage 

 the rod as to cause the fly to swim obliquely, or 

 almost at a right angle across the river; and, 

 perhaps, there is nothing in salmon-fishing which 

 demands greater care and thought, and more close 



