242 SALMON-FISHER'S ROD. 



Historians used to gravely tell us that salmon, 

 in order to jump high, were in the habit of placing 

 their tails in their mouths, and then, bending 

 themselves like a bow, bound out of the water to 

 a considerable distance, from twelve to twenty 

 feet. Mr. Scrope calculates that six feet in height 

 is more than the average spring of salmon, though 

 he conceives that very large fish, in deep water, 

 could leap much higher. He says, ' Large fish 

 can spring much higher than small ones ; but their 

 powers are limited or augmented according to the 

 depth of water they spring from ; in shallow water, 

 they have little power of ascension ; in deep, they 

 have the most considerable. They rise rapidly 

 from the very bottom to the surface of the water 

 by means of rowing and sculling, as it were, with 

 their fins and tail; and this powerful impetus 

 bears them upwards in the air, on the same prin- 

 ciple that a few tugs of the oar make a boat shoot 

 onwards after one has ceased to row.' 



THE SALMON-FISHER'S EOD. Before I proceed 

 to teach how this angling apparatus must be used, 

 I shall state what it should be in shape, size, 

 material, and so forth. No salmon fly-rod need 

 ever be longer than eighteen feet, and should 

 never be shorter than sixteen. With two well- 

 made rods of the above lengths, the widest and 

 narrowest salmon-rivers may be properly fished, 

 and salmon and salmonidao of every size satis- 



