SPRING. 31 



who has been used to difficult trout fishing. The impres- 

 sion, in many such instances, is never wholly removed, 

 though the capture of a few heavy fish has a wonderful 

 effect towards creating an enthusiasm that shall abide. 



But there is a majesty in a salmon river that helps to 

 put the sportsman on terms with himself. All is move- 

 ment. Born in the snow-covered mountains, the streamlet 

 has bounded from rock to rock, whitening into cascades, 

 broadening out into foam-flecked pools, streaming abroad 

 over shallows and scours, gathering force down the head- 

 long rapids, sweeping, in mature river-like dimensions, 

 under lofty crags, eddying past dark masses of wood, 

 and anon gently lapping yellow strands, in whose tiny 

 wavelets children may play. Some day will come the roar 

 of the spate, and the dark-tinted waters which call the 

 angler to be doubly on the alert, with by-and-bye, in the 

 dog-days, low bright streams, when his highest skill is 

 requisite for even a small modicum of success. 



February brings the opening day upon rivers such as 

 these, with varying chances in this capricious climate — 

 tempest to-day, north-easters, with driving sleet, and snow, 

 and dirty water, to-morrow ; but who cares if, with the 

 fight with the elements there come at last mortal tussles 

 with clean-run fish, though, intermingled, be the profitless 

 hooking of foul, hungry kelts, which, be they never so well 

 mended, must be returned to gain convalescence in the 

 sea ? Upon the banks of the Thurso, Tweed and Teviot, 

 Tay, Lyon and Tummel ; by Spey, Dee, and Don ; on the 

 turbulent surface of Loch Tay, with the shoulders of the 

 surrounding mountains kept warm by their white mantles, 

 the Scotch anglers ply their rods in the second month of 

 the year, while in Ireland the lure is simultaneously cast 

 upon the Lee and Blackwater In County Cork, the Suir 



