90 SINGULAR CONDUCT OF SALMON. [PART I. 



accursed bag-nets, which were waiting to receive 

 them a couple of miles below, and which had, for 

 some time previously, yielded comparatively little. 

 It is said that the Salmon have never forgotten or 

 forgiven this interference with the natural order 

 of things, and that those which now visit his river 

 are neither so numerous nor so large as those 

 which used to do so before this dodge was at- 

 tempted 1 . 



After Salmon have been hooked, if they have 

 not been very sharply struck, they will not unfre- 

 quently allow themselves to be drawn along for a 

 considerable distance even till close to the shore 

 quietly following the pull of the line, without 

 the slightest struggle or attempt at resistance, and 

 apparently quite unconscious of their danger. 



I am somewhat at a loss to know how this is 

 to be accounted for. It can scarcely be that they 

 do not feel the hook, for, although a Salmon will 

 sometimes rise at a fly several times in succession, 

 and perhaps be caught after all by a judicious 



1 Having given this story on the authority of some of this 

 gentleman's neighbours, I am bound to add, that, from what 

 I have subsequently heard, I fancy they made the most of it 

 in the telling. As, however, I believe there is still a good deal 

 of truth about it, I let it stand with this reservation. 



