140 THE SALMON 



' Sport,' it only looked like a small hit of the monster 

 that escaped. 



Mr. Bromley Davenport's work is too well known 

 for anything more than a passing allusion to his 

 fishing adventure. If any of my readers have not yet 

 read ' Sport/ they have a treat before them, with which 

 I should be loth to interfere, and I refer them to its 

 brilliant pages for particulars of the loss of ' the 

 biggest fish that ever was seen.' 



Another most vivid and picturesque account of 

 ' a night with a salmon ' may be found in a volume 

 of essays by the Bishop of Bristol, published by 

 Smith, Elder & Co., 1895, under the title of ' Off the 

 Mill.' It attracted much attention when first printed 

 in the ' Cornhill Magazine-' for 1869, and I have the 

 authority of its author for stating that all the details 

 are exact in every particular. It is most instructive, 

 not merely from the dramatic incidents of the 

 struggle, but also as a record of salmon taking a bait 

 in salt water, and may be taken as another typical 

 instance of failure in spite of every possible exercise 

 of pluck, patience, skill, and resource. 



The scene of the adventure is that part of the Tay 

 where the Earn joins its waters with the larger stream, 

 and the estuary proper commences. The rise and 

 fall of the tide amounts to twelve to fourteen feet, 



