BAIT FOR SALMON. 213 



is so rapid, that it is every year fast wearing it 

 away ; and this spot is most excellent for large 

 chub, and I could enumerate very many like it. 

 The side of a much worn bank, though it runs 

 quite straight, is, if the water be swift and deep, 

 sure to produce chub. A regular chub-hole is 

 very often a good pike-hole. I know a few 

 where, in their respective seasons, I can always 

 make sure of these fish. 



Herb. — But to return to our nobler prey, the 

 salmon, do not they take worms, and even a 

 spinning bait in rivers? I learn that those are 

 the great means resorted to in Norway. 



Theoph. — I grant you, that as regards their 

 taking worms, it is a puzzler. So I believe that they 

 have been seen to take natural flies on this river, 

 and have been taken by dibbing with the natural 

 fly. But a spinning bait offers the extra tempta- 

 tion of something glittering, and having a motion 

 communicated by our hands and by no means 

 natural to a living fish ; and I never heard of 

 their taking a live bait, as jack, and perch, 

 will do. Upon the whole, therefore, I fear we 

 must place this also among the many subjects 

 connected with the natural history of fish, as to 

 which we are, I regret to say, entirely in the 

 dark at present. Still, however, from all we have 

 to base any opinion upon, I feel quite justified in 

 saying that salmon do not, and cannot take our flies 



