THE ATLANTIC SALMON 



{Salmo Salar) 



CHAPTER I 



HISTORY AND HABITS 



Concerning no fish except the trout has so much 

 been written as on the salmon, and the result of 

 the whole body of literature on the subject is to 

 give to the Philistine, meaning all who have never 

 caught salmon and many who have done so, numer- 

 ous erroneous ideas on the subject along with a 

 few " proved facts." This state of things is largely 

 due to the little positive existing knowledge of 

 the salmon, except during his brief journeys to his 

 native or other rivers, and to his many vacillating 

 and inconsistent characteristics while under obser- 

 vation, especially that of a necessarily temporary 

 kind. He will show one day the courage and 

 voracity of a hungry lion, the next the timidity of 

 a hare. At 9 a.m. every fish in a pool may be 

 ruled by tendencies to investigate with boldness 

 and disregard of consequences almost anything 

 from a gnat to a swallow or squirrel in the river. 



3 



