SALMON FISHING. 73 



big, and the lapse of time has not in any way diminished his fabled 

 weight. 



Perhaps the one drawback to salmon fishing as an art is that to 

 which I have already alluded, viz., that the friendly stream corrects of 

 itself all, or nearly all, errors of slovenly casting, and in that respect 

 places the duffer more on a par with the really competent. On the 

 other hand, knowledge and experience, and perhaps more particularly 

 local experience, will assert itself in the long run, even against the 

 adventitious success of the novice. 



The mere fact of having really fished a pool, whether success reward 

 your efforts or no, is of itself an element of enjoyment ; the feeling 

 that you have fished, and fished with a really working fly every inch 

 of fishable water, is per se a cause of satisfaction and pleasure. Here 

 you are master of the situation ; on you depends your chance of sport, 

 if any is to be obtained. 



In grouse driving you may draw the worst butt ; or, if you have 

 the luck to draw the best, the birds may unaccountably take an unusual 

 line, and, though you may have drawn the " King's butt," nearly every 

 bird may pass over the heads of your comrades to the right and left 

 of you. You are, as it were, a mere automaton, to shoot whatever may 

 come within range ; you may be the victim of circumstances, and may 

 get very few chances. 



In hunting, unless you hunt the hounds yourself, you have little 

 chance of seeing, and none whatever of controlling, the best part of 

 the game, the working of the hounds. Your main object is to be with 

 them ; they and the huntsman, or master, do the work, you are merely 

 an accessory. 



In fishing, whether it be for trout or salmon, everything from start 

 to finish rests with yourself; you have to work out your own salvation; 

 and I venture to assert that it is in consequence of this individual 

 responsibility that fishing, apart from its other many merits, holds so 

 high a place in all our affections. 



I doubt whether there are many men who have not become aware, 

 in playing salmon (and perhaps more often when the fish is nearly 

 played out), of a second fish following the hooked one in all its 

 movements and stratagems to free itself from the unwelcome attachment 



L 



