204 THE FIRST SALMON 



to resist the first rush of a fresh-run salmon, or feels 

 the long downward strain on his rod, and hears the 

 screech of the reel as his first fish plunges down- 

 stream in its initial rush for safety ; no tension is 

 more delightful than the first twenty minutes spent 

 with a clean-run salmon; and no satisfaction, so far 

 as the sport is concerned, can possibly exceed that 

 felt by him as the gleaming silver sides of his first 

 salmon emerge from the water on his gillie's gaff. 

 The vigour of the sport, the grandeur of the scenery, 

 and the revivifying atmosphere of his surroundings, 

 form a tonic to the system far more pleasant and of 

 infinitely greater value than any the pharmacopoeia 

 is capable of producing. The struggle between the 

 salmon and the fisherman is more severe, longer, and 

 the result more uncertain than that between the trout 

 and man, and during the time the struggle lasts no 

 one would deny that salmon fishing is infinitely superior 

 to trout fishing. It is during all the other hours of 

 these two sports that the latter may with justice 

 claim precedence, and, day in and day out, there are 

 many who prefer dry fly fishing for trout. 



HARLING 



This method of presenting the lure to salmon can 

 best be adopted in large and rapid rivers which are 

 otherwise unfishable. Harling is perhaps the most 

 killing but by no means the most interesting method 

 of presenting the lure to the notice of the salmon, 



