THE ELUSIVE QUARRY 45 



same kind, are modified by time. Losing novelty, 

 they are gradually dropped by the elect themselves. 

 Even as it will soon be perceived that alcohol is 

 not a poison in the ordinary sense of the word ; 

 that the race is not degenerate; and that the 

 people, though capable of regimentation, are not 

 an organism, Science may ere long see its way 

 towards modifying its deliverance on this fascinating 

 problem in sport. 



I think that its ultimate judgment will be a com- 

 promise. 



Why should it be deemed improbable that a fish 

 takes a fly from hunger at one time and from some 

 emotional impulse at another ? To say that salmon 

 flies are not like any insect is hardly a persuasive 

 plea against the thought that they may seem good to 

 eat. Only three or four generations ago men fished 

 for trout, and caught them, with flies three or four 

 times larger than the insects which, very clumsily, 

 the lures were designed to imitate. Then, are salmon 

 to be thought of as for certain differing from all 

 other animals whose moods we understand in respect 

 that they are incapable of irritation, or of curiosity, or 

 of playfulness ? A remark by Mr. Rudyard Kipling, 

 in a private letter to myself, may, I think, be men- 

 tioned without impropriety. Mr. Kipling speaks of 

 " fish rising from nasty temper, which,'" he says, " I 

 have seen a salmon do more than once." An impli- 

 cation obviously is that at other times they rise from 

 another impulse. Indeed, there is reason for believing 

 that sometimes they rise in a rage and eat at leisure 



