i7o THE SALMON 



CHAPTER IX 



PISCATOR AND VENATOR 



Lochiel, in the introductory chapter on deer-stalking 

 of the volume on the Red Deer, which he contributed 

 to this series, institutes a comparison between the 

 four pre-eminent British sports — deer-stalking, grouse- 

 shooting, salmon-fishing, and fox-hunting— naturally 

 to the advantage of his own favourite pursuit. Small 

 wonder that the Laird of Achnacarry, bred and nurtured 

 in the heart of the forest, should firmly hold and 

 stoutly maintain such an opinion ; but I think that he 

 hardly does justice to the votaries of the other sports 

 enumerated, by the arguments he puts into their 

 mouths. I should perhaps be going outside my subject 

 if I were to take up the cudgels for the fowler and fox- 

 hunter ; but it is quite in accordance with the precedent 

 of the earliest and most famous works on fishing that 

 Venator and Piscator should hold a conference on 

 paper, each commending his own recreation. In the 

 book of St. Albans, Dame Juliana Berners makes a 



