82 SALMON FISHING 



almost always refer their behaviour to some state 

 of the weather with which the rising of trout is 

 in some well -understood association; but salmon 

 often act without regard to precedent. It is never 

 needful to despair. Now and then they come on 

 quite unexpectedly. Let it be noted that here we 

 speak of salmon in the plural. The strangest aspect 

 of their whimsicality is that, as a rule, the mood to 

 take a lure seizes many of them, if not all, at the 

 same moment. Evidence of this assertion is not 

 easily found on a river, where each fisherman is likely 

 to be out of the other's sight ; but many a time it 

 has been comically manifest on a lake, where it is 

 possible for the vision to range far and wide. Are 

 you fast in a fish after hours of fruitless trolling ? 

 Look round. Every rod on the water is bent and 

 twitching under a similar strain ! 



In the chapter on lake-fishing we shall be con- 

 cerned mainly with the spring. That, like every 

 other, is a joyous period. It has delights peculiarly 

 its own. I like to think of them now, not many 

 days before I shall hear the loch a-calling ; but even 

 at this moment, in mid- winter, with snow deep upon 

 the mountains, and beginning to whirl into the vale, 

 I find my thoughts wandering to the months of 

 autumn. Spring issues from winter by imperceptible 

 gradations, and merges into summer in the same 

 way. You cannot tell exactly when she begins or 

 when she ends. She is shy, gentle, evolutional. 

 Autumn is different. He is dramatic. His announce- 

 ment of himself is sudden. He comes with a rush 



