THE SALMON. 183 



angling, must be a sufficient justification. True, I am not a " senior 

 angler," as the critics so punningly and coincidently termed Mr. Pennell 

 though, by the by, that gentleman is not so very " senior." However, I 

 know what I am talking about, and, me seems, that is all that the readers 

 of "The Practical Fisherman" ought to require. 



So much for self, on which subject, as Lord Byron has remarked in 

 one of his letters, "All men are fluent, and none agreeable." Now for 

 the salmon. What says the earliest writer on fishing for this truly noble 

 fish ? Hear good Dame Julyana Berners : " For by cause that the samon 

 is the most stately fyssh that ony man maye angle to in fresshe water. 

 Therefore I propose to begyn at hym. The samon is a gentyll fysshe, 

 but he is comberous for to take. For comynly he is but in depe places 

 in grete ryvers. And for the more parte he holdyth the myddys of it, 

 that a man maye not come at hym. And he is in season from Marche 

 on to Myghelmas. In whych season ye shall angle to him with theyse 

 baytes, whan ye maye gete theym. Fyrste, wyth a redde worme in the 

 begynnynge and endynge of the season, and also wyih a lob that bredeth 

 in a dunghyll. And specyally wyth a soverayn bayte that fedeth on a 

 water docke. And he bythith not at the grounde but at ye floate. 

 Also ye maye take hym, but it is seldom seen with a dubbe at such 

 time as whan he lepyth in lyke orme and mannere as ye doo take a 

 troughe or a gryalynge. And thyse baytes ben well provyd baytes for 

 the samon." 



This is all Dame Julyana has to say, and, quaint as it is, it neverthe- 

 less is in the main evidently the outcome of experience. Barker, in his 

 "Barker's Delight," says but little more even in 1655. This is his 

 poetical version of the chapter he gives on Salmo salar . 



Close to the bottom, in the midst of the water, 



I fished for a salmon, and there I caught her. 



My plummet twelve inches, from the large hook 



Two lob- worms hanged equal, which she never forsook, 



Nor yet the great hook with the six-winged flye, 



And she makes at a gudgeon most furiously. 



My strong line was just twenty-six yards loner; 



I gave him a time, though I found him strong. 



I rould up my tackle to guide him to shore ; 



The landing hook helped much, the cookery more. 



Remarkably unmelodious doggerel is this, but it is a curiosity in its 

 way, for it cannot be said to be anything but a close paraphrase of the 

 following. Certainly, here is an example of prose and ' ' worse ' ' : 



' ' The angler that goeth to catch him with a line and hook must angle 

 as nigh the water as he can with one of these baits. He must take two 

 lob-worms baited as handsomely as he can, that the fine ends may hang 

 most of a length, and so angle as nigh the bottom as he can, feeling 

 your plummet run on the ground some twelve inches from the hook ; if 

 you angle for him with a flie (which he will rise at like a trout) , the flie 



