THE RIVER GAULA 3 



As a salmon river it is not in the first class. 

 Its fish, if fairly numerous, are not large ; the 

 conformation of the bed of the river renders a 

 good deal of the water comparatively useless 

 for angling purposes ; and the numerous falls, 

 though they have been skilfully circumvented 

 by fish-passes, cause the fishing above the tidal 

 water to be precarious and uncertain. In the 

 best of recent seasons it has yielded to two 

 rods in June and July 150 salmon and as 

 many grilse. The heaviest fish we have killed 

 scaled 32 Ib. The average weight of salmon is 

 13 Ib., of grilse 3f Ib. These modest figures, 

 though they do not compete w r ith the bags made 

 on some Norwegian waters, will nevertheless 

 betoken to the discerning eye a sufficiency of 

 the joys and the disappointments, the tremors 

 and the triumphs, which go to make up 

 " sport." In two respects we have cause for 

 congratulation. The fish when they will take 

 anything, will take the fly. They have not yet 

 been debauched by the constant use of prawns, 

 minnows, spoons, and such unhappy engines, 

 which as we read with horror have ruined finer 

 streams. 



Further, it is by casting, and not by harling 



