36 Where to Fish for Salmon, 



the bird, which had then apparently caught sight of 

 him, flew off, and my friend continuing his fishing 

 down stream, was absent from the spot for some 

 hours. In the evening, returning with his rod on 

 his shoulder, he was surprised to see in mid-stream, 

 about the spot where he had noticed the bird, the 

 tail of a large salmon well out of the water, and 

 moving slowly to and fro. Watching this for some 

 time, and seeing nothing of the body of the fish, he 

 determined to wade into the stream, about three 

 feet deep, and get close to him if possible. This he 

 succeeded in doing. Still the undulatory motion 

 went on, and he could then plainly make out that 

 the head of the fish was close against the bottom, 

 and that it neither moved nor appeared conscious of 

 his presence. After looking at it for some moments 

 he gaffed it and carried it out struggling, but faintly 

 and quite unlike a fish suddenly gaffed. On the 

 other hand, the fish seemed to have nothing else the 

 matter with him ; he was as bright as silver, in 

 perfect condition, and had no marks upon him as if 

 he had been injured or struck. To this day he is 

 quite at a loss to account for the incident, but the 

 impression made upon him was, that the state of 

 the fish was in some way or other connected with 

 the movements of the bird.^ 



* The bird was in all probability the cormorant. The great 

 northern or other large diver would have dived, not flown 



