400 



SALMON AND TROUT. 



preserved in salt used with great success, and indeed it is 

 difficult to see why it is thought necessary to boil them. The 

 boiling process doubtless gives them a very attractive appear- 

 ance, but a salmon in a predatory humour is no respecter of 

 colour. It is the smell that is the attrac- 

 tion ; otherwise how could -fish feed on 

 worms, and other natural food, in thick 

 water in a heavy flood, when it is impossible 

 for them to see an inch before them ? 



* There are many different sorts of tackle 

 used for fishing with the prawn. I have 

 tried most of them, and as I think that 

 nothing can beat one that was shown to me 

 by Mr. Barter, a well-known and most 

 successful salmon fisher in the South of 

 Ireland, I append a drawing of it. This 

 gentleman has made prawn, as well as every 

 other mode of bait fishing, his especial 

 study, and I know no better authority on 

 such matters. 



' Fig. i represents the tackle before the prawn is put on. 

 The point of the needle is to be inserted in the tail and 

 brought out at the middle of the breast, the point protruding 

 about one-eighth of an inch ; the small loop underneath the 

 shank of the lowermost double hooks is then drawn over the 

 point and pulled up as far as it will go, and the tail made 

 fast to the trace by binding it with one or two turns of red 

 cotton thread. 



* If it is thought necessary, in order to prevent the action of 

 the stream from tearing off the scales, the binding can be con- 

 tinued four or five turns towards the head and back again to 

 the tail and there fastened off. If this is carefully and artisti- 

 cally done, a prawn should last a long time even in a rapid 

 stream. When preserved any length of time in glycerine it 

 will generally require binding, but if it has been kept in salt 



PRESERVED PRAWNS. 



(Farlow.) 



