32 SALMON FISHING 



not seem to feel that the question is of much 

 moment. The evidence which he records was 

 gathered casually. It is not even clear whether 

 the fish that had remnants of recent meals within 

 them were taken from fresh water or from salt. 

 The editor's whole-hearted declaration is equally 

 lacking in precision. His statement that "salmon 

 must feed in fresh water " merely takes for granted 

 what the contributor tries, rather diffidently, to 

 prove. 



On the other hand, there are striking oversights 

 in the reasoning of the scientific side. Immediately 

 after his diverting argument from analogy, Sir 

 Herbert Maxwell tells a story. A friend was fish- 

 ing on the Inver, in Sutherland. The water was 

 very low. Many fish were lying in a certain pool, 

 but not one would move at a salmon fly, and the 

 fisherman seated himself to rest. Ere long he 

 noticed a white butterfly floating down the stream. 

 A salmon rose quietly and took it. Thereupon the 

 fisherman put on a Mayfly, and let it float over the 

 salmon, which rose, was hooked, and was landed. 

 Sir Herbert Maxwell's comment is astonishing. " In 

 this instance,'" 1 he says, "the salmon, having ascer- 

 tained that the butterfly was palatable, doubtless 

 did take the Mayfly," which the fish supposed to be 

 a butterfly, not being able to distinguish between 

 white wings and yellow, "with gustatory intent; 

 but it is surely too much to assume that all the 

 lures we display are seized from similar motives." 

 As a celebrated critic of literature said when too 



