THREE FISHERS, AND SOME BIG FISH 155 



1893. Mr. Peter Loudon got one of 50^ lb. on the 

 Annan. 



1895. Lord Zetland got one of 55 lb. on the Tay. 



In addition to these, Mr. Malloch, of Perth, men- 

 tions two caught on the Tay, one of 54 lb., caught by 

 Lord Ruthven, and one of 50 lb. by Mr. Clark 

 Jervoise. Mr. Ffennell also records a curious inci- 

 dent connected with a salmon of 51^ lb. taken in the 

 nets on the Wye in 1887. A fly with some gut 

 attached to it was found in his mouth. Dr. Norman 

 of Ross identified this fly as one he had lost in a big 

 fish which he had been playing for a long time some 

 twelve days before. This is a most singular incident, 

 as salmon usually get rid of flies and hooks very soon 

 after they have broken them off. 



Mr. Ffennell has certainly done great service to 

 the cause of accuracy by investigating every alleged 

 instance of exceptional weight at the time, and he 

 really merits the title of ' giant killer.' As he rightly 

 states, in a letter to the 'Times,' in April 1887, on a 

 ' bogus ' Shannon salmon of 72 lb., unless such false 

 reports are contradicted immediately they appear, 

 many mythical salmon would be handed down and 

 placed on record. Some of the cases, exposed after 

 paragraphs had gone the round of the papers, turned 

 out to be pure invention ; many more, hardly less 



