149 



THE rSK. 



Of all the sports wliicli Euglislimen engage in there are 

 none so uncertain in their results as the pursuit of the lordly 

 salmon. The onh^ thing of which you may be perfectly 

 assured, in this connection, is that the cost will be far and 

 away beyond all proportion to the sport obtained. Salmon 

 fishing is a pure lottery, even on the best of oiu' rivers, and 

 it is the chance of drawing a prize — in the shape of a few 

 real red-letter days — which lures so many of us to ignore 

 past failures and to try again. "What the season will be, 

 when the end is reached a few weeks hence, none of us can 

 foretell. Given a wet autumn, the "back-end" raa}^ yet 

 make amends, to some extent, for the spring and summer 

 fishing, which have, to put it mildly, been rascally bad. 

 As an illustration of the glorious uncertainty of this costly 

 sport let me instance the Monmouthshire T'sk. Last 

 season the rod-fishermen killed on this splendid fly-river 

 no less than five thousand salmon ! With such a magnifi- 

 cent " record " score to point to, the fancy rents which there 

 prevail went up with a bound, but those who paid them in 

 haste have had the whole of the present season wherein to 

 repent at leisure, for, up to September 1, it is doubtful if 

 twenty " fish " had been killed by rod and line on this river. 

 Hope springs eternal in the breast of the fisherman, and he 

 never is but always to be blest ; therefore we found in the 

 lovely valley of the Usk, at short intervals, men clothed in 

 strange fishermen's garments, and weary woe-begone coun- 

 tenances, aimlessly wasting their days, and fervently pray- 

 imj for delus'es of rain which would not come ! Within 

 the memory of that historical and respected individual, the 

 oldest inhabitant — who never remembers anything — the 

 river Usk has not been so low as it has been this season. So 

 low, indeed, had it fallen that, in the vicinity of Aber- 

 gavenny, you might cross some of its shallows wearing a 



