144 A RIVER OF NORWAY 



long-hoped-for 40-pounder, great will be your 

 satisfaction and your lawful pride." 



A word as to hooks. Whether the angler 

 uses eyed-hooks, as recommended by Captain 

 Hale, or hooks with gut loops attached, must be 

 left to his individual preference and judgment. 

 I think the gut loops are pleasanter to attach 

 to the cast, but the metal eyes last for ever. 

 It is a dreadful catastrophe for the loop of a 

 fly to draw from the hook, and this has been 

 known to occur in the case of old flies, the 

 tying silk and varnish having perished. The 

 ordinary Limerick hook, now almost universally 

 used for salmon flies, frequently has the point 

 too much turned in. My attention was called 

 by a letter in the Field a few months ago, 

 to a type of hook with a point not parallel to 

 the shank, but turned somewhat away from it. 

 The writer claimed that of fish hooked he lost a 

 far smaller proportion than with ordinary hooks. 

 As I had previously had an idea that some such 

 change would be beneficial, I gave the hooks an 

 extended trial this year, and can thoroughly cor- 

 roborate the claims made for them by the writer 

 in the Field. Of fish that rose to the fly, I 

 certainly hooked quite as large a proportion as 



