SALMON FISHING. 149 
FLY-FISHING. 
Although, in common with many Trout-fishers who are 
also Salmon-fishers, I prefer good Trout-fishing to any 
other sport with the rod, it must be admitted that there 
are points in which Salmon-fishing carries off the palm 
—and carries it off too not only from Trout-fishing, but 
from every other sport which these islands afford. 
Perhaps I could not with truth say that I prefer fishing 
to shooting, or shooting to hunting ; they are a glorious 
trio, to each of whom in turn I have sworn alle- 
giance; and if like Paris I had a golden apple 
‘to bestow, it should be given to Fishing only because she 
has been in a special sense: my mistress—“ the fairest 
and most loving wife’—in many a wild and lonely spot 
where but for her gentle companionship and solace, I 
should have felt myself in every sense of the word alone. 
But though it would perhaps be impossible, honestly, and 
“unbiassed by self-profit,” to award the palm of supe- 
riority to either of our three national sports as a whole, 
I unhesitatingly assert that there is no single moment 
with horse or gun into which is concentrated such a 
thrill. of hope, fear, expectation, and exultation as that 
of the rise and successful striking of a heavy Salmon. 
I have seen men literally unable to stand, or to hold their 
vod, from sheer excitement. 
And indeed in this very excitement—in the impe- 
tuosity of spirit it engenders—lies almost the only real 
