130 THAMES AND OTHER ANGLERS. [CHAP. iv. 



recreation, whether they are pursued in the large English or 

 Scottish lakes, or caught in the small rivulets that feed our 

 great salmon streams. 



Although Britain is possessed of a seabord of 4000 miles, 

 and a large number of fine rivers and lakes, the total number 

 of British fishes is comparatively small (about 250 only), and 

 the varieties which live in the fresh water are therefore very 

 limited ; those that afford sport may be numbered with ease 

 on our ten fingers. Fishers who live in the vicinity of large 

 cities are obliged in consequence to content themselves with 

 the realisation of that old proverb which tells them that small 

 fish are better than no fish at all ; hence there is a race of 

 anglers who are contented to sit all day in a punt on the 

 Thames, happy when evening arrives to find their patience 

 rewarded with a fisher's dozen of stupid gudgeons. But in 

 the north, on the lakes of Cumberland or on the Highland 

 lochs of Scotland, such tame sport would be laughed at. 

 Are there not charr in the Derwent and splendid trout in 

 Loch Awe ? and these require to be pursued with a zeal, and 

 involve an amount of labour not understood by anglers who 

 punt for gudgeon or who haunt the East India Docks for perch, 

 or the angler who only knows the usual run of Thames fish 

 barbel, roach, dace, and gudgeon. To kill a sixteen-pound 

 salmon on a Welsh or Highland stream is to be named a 

 knight among anglers ; indeed, there are men who never lift a 

 rod except to kill a salmon ; such, however, like the Duke of 

 Roxburghe, are the giants of the profession. For sport there 

 is no fish like the monarch of the brook, and great anglers will 

 not waste time on any fish less noble. An angler, with a 

 moderate-sized fish of the salmon kind at the end of his line, 

 is not in the enjoyment of a sinecure, although he would not 

 for any kind of reward allow his work to be done by deputy. 

 I have seen a gentleman play a fish for four hours rather than 

 yield his rod to the attendant gillie, who could have landed 



