86 SALMON FISHING 



been treating of sport as certain. Perhaps that is 

 not far wrong. They are foolish who encourage the 

 imagination to droop into gloom and decadence 

 merely because the summer solstice has once more 

 come and gone. It will come again. Meanwhile, 

 the Parliament having risen, and many vigorous 

 minds having been thereby and otherwise freed to 

 think about the affairs of sport, there are discussions 

 about what are the proper lures. No one challenges 

 the fly. Many challenge all other means of capturing 

 a salmon. "Harling "and trolling are particularly 

 suspect. Harling is practised only on very large 

 rivers. Many a time, in reading some book on sport, 

 I had wondered what "harlinff" meant. I knew 



o 



that it was a method of angling much practised on 

 the Tay, and that it was pursued from on board a 

 boat; but I had been unable to visualise it. If 

 " harling " meant trolling a minnow, the boat must 

 be moving up-stream ; and would not that make too 

 great a commotion even in the wide Tay ? So I had 

 ruminated. Well, strolling up the river with a trout 

 rod, in September the year before last, suddenly I 

 came upon two lithe young men, gamekeepers, 

 launching a boat. As a pair of salmon rods lay on 

 the bank, it was obvious that they were going to fish. 

 I had seen the boat before. It was of the coble 

 type, and very broad in the beam. It had been a 

 matter of wonder to me to think that such a craft 

 could be held against the heavy rush of the pool 

 by the side of which it had been lying. Behold ! in 

 the very middle of the torrent the craft rested on 



