History and Habits 23 



he had come. The salmon was about seventeen 

 pounds' weight, and his dark color showed he 

 had been for some time in fresh water. A bright 

 salmon was taken a year after this by an Indian 

 fishing for trout with bait just above the tide head 

 in the Restigouche. A young friend of mine 

 took a salmon with a fly on the Upsalquitch, 

 which had in his stomach a small mass of angle- 

 worms. Any one angling in rivers that are netted 

 at the mouth must have noticed that the fish 

 which have been in the nets and escaped will take 

 the fly much quicker than their unscathed com- 

 panions. May it not be that as the wounded fish 

 reach the stage of convalescence their appetite re- 

 vives, and the needs of their systems, to make up 

 for the waste caused by their injuries, excite them 

 to extraordinary exertions to appease it? 



Many instances have been known of fish taking 

 the fly when so badly hurt as to make it seem 

 almost incredible that they should want to move. 

 I took one which had lately lost a good pound of 

 flesh by a seal bite and saw one of twenty-three 

 pounds taken, which I afterward learned had 

 been hooked, played, gaffed, and lost the evening 

 before about half a mile below. In addition to 

 the fly embedded in his jaw with a yard of gut fast 



