SPRING. 29 



highest order of sport. For myself, I hold the salmon to 

 be the king of fish, but trouting to be the choicest form of 

 angling ; in the word salmon, including all the migratory- 

 species, and by trouting meaning also fly-fishing for 

 grayling. This predilection for the trout rod is a whim 

 of my own, I am aware, in which few will probably give 

 me countenance. At the same time, there are foolish 

 folks of some experience on lake and river who take a 

 like view, and I mention the matter here to justify the 

 statement that the point with some is an open one. But 

 there can be no question that salmon and trout between 

 them represent the science, ethics, poetry, rhetoric (and all 

 the rest) of the delicious sport of angling. 



Had every salmon-fisher a record to show like some of 

 those transcribed in the preceding chapter, he might sing 

 everlasting anthems in praise of that phase of angling. 

 We should then all be salmon fishers according to our 

 opportunities. But it is weary work toiling through the 

 day with one " fish " as a result, and as often as not with 

 nothing to show for the pains. That day, in the first weeks 

 of the season, will probably be cold and wet and blustering, 

 and the play uncommonly like downright hard work. Still 

 the big rod is plied, the long cast essayed upon every 

 likely pool, the fly changed (changed too often by some 

 men), and every tactic observed. The angler loves his 

 work, and when it runs in the direction of salmon there 

 are many special breezes that keep his zeal alive. A 

 coterie of anglers lounging round the smoking-room fire 

 after a day's fishing, betray in a very brief conversation 

 why they will not stoop to any but salmon angling. 



The things we do not know about a salmon, for instance, 

 would make, if not a book, a pamphlet of decent dimen- 

 sions. How the noble salar spends his time at sea, and 



