HOOK MAKING. 47 



and I ascertained that they were both ill-shapen and badly 

 tempered. My cousin had warned me against the conse- 

 quences of using them, but I believed that he was prejudiced, 

 and concluded that this department of my London outfit 

 must be unobjectionable. The event, however, proved that 

 I was deceived. My kinsman rarely lost a salmon, and 

 mine broke from me continually. I find by sad experience, 

 that in hook- making the Irish are far before us ; our work- 

 men either do not understand the method of forming and 

 tempering hooks, or they do not take sufficient pains in their 

 manufactory. It is strange when so much of the angler's 

 pleasure and success depends upon the quality of his hooks, 

 that more attention is not bestowed upon their fabrication. 

 The art of forming, and the process of tempering them, 

 appears simple enough ; and that little difficulty is required 

 to attain it, is evident from the fact, that many fishermen 

 make their own hooks.* For my own part, however, I con- 

 sider hook-making to be an unnecessary accomplishment for 

 the angler, as the best hooks in the world can be procured 

 without trouble, and at a trifling expense, from O'Shaughnessy 

 of Limerick. f 



CHAPTER X. 



Salmon Fishing described Draughting Fishing precarious Change of 

 season and condition Poaching Private distillation Size and weight 

 of Salmon Sir H. Davy Migration of Salmon Natural history 

 Anecdotes and experiments Lernsere Salmoneae. 



To those unacquainted with the method of taking salmon, 

 a brief detail may not be uninteresting : premising that in 

 other fisheries different means are employed, yet the simplest 

 and general method is that used at Aughniss. 



18 " I have even made a hook, which, though a little inferior in form, 

 in other respects, I think, I could boast as equal to the Limerick ones." 

 Salmonia. 



f " I never use any hooks for salmon fishing except those which I am 

 sure have been made by O'Shaughnessy of Limerick; for even those 

 made in Dublin, though they seldom break, yet they now and then bend ; 

 and the English hooks, made of cast-steel, in imitation of Irish ones, are 

 the worst of all." Salmonia. 



