SALMON FISHING WITH THE FLY. 179 



There are certain well-proved and established facts con- 

 nected with salmon fishing that need no mention on my part, 

 and I will endeavour to confine myself, as far as I can, to the 

 relation of that which I know of my own knowledge. During 

 an experience of over thirty years, in England, Scotland, Ire- 

 land, and Norway, I have had most favourable opportunities 

 of studying the habits of the salmon and the art of fishing for 

 him, and, if any information I am able to give should prove 

 useful to my brother fishermen, T shall be amply repaid for my 

 trouble. 



All the knowledge we possess of the habits of the salmon 

 has been acquired during that period of his life which he passes 

 in fresh water. We know nothing of his habits during his so- 

 journ in the sea, except that at certain seasons of the year he 

 feels his way along the coast until instinct teaches him he has 

 found the estuary of the river he has been bred in, and he then 

 makes his way up it. From this time until, in the natural course 

 of events, he returns to the sea, we have many opportunities 

 of studying his habits, and we get to know certain facts, from 

 which we draw our own conclusions. We start theories with- 

 out end, some of which, after a short argument, will be found 

 utterly baseless ; but others seem more plausible, and have a 

 certain amount of evidence to support them, such as may make 

 it reasonable to assume that we have arrived at something like 

 a near approximation to the truth. 



We know a salmon enters fresh water at certain seasons of 

 the year for the purpose of propagating his species, that sooner 

 or later he makes his way to the locality where instinct points 

 out to him he is to deposit his spawn, and that on his journey 

 upwards he will occasionally take whatever bait is offered him 

 by the angler. When the time comes he deposits his spawn, 

 after which he gradually makes his way down the river and 

 re-enters the sea. The sea is his native element, and I think 

 it must be taken for granted that he feeds voraciously during 



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