330 SPORT IN EUROPE 



the great pine forests of Valsain, near San Ildefonso, belonging 

 to tlie royal domain. At San Ildefonso itself the royal family has 

 a breeding establishment under the supervision of Victor Vicht, an 

 Alsatian, and the watercourses in the royal gardens are full of 

 trout, which afford capital sport when H.R. H. the Infanta Isabel 

 issues invitations to fish there. In the matter of flavour, however, 

 it must be confessed that these trout are far inferior to those 

 caught at the Pavlar. In the rest of Spain, trout are shockingly 

 poached, and few Spaniards seem to have mastered the true art 

 of trout-fishing with the dry fly. 



Mr. Larios writes as follows : — 



Excellent sport can be had in the north of Spain with the trout, and I believe 

 also with salmon-trout, but I cannot say as much as regards the salmon ; and indeed, 

 unless the Government makes proper laws and takes urgent measures for the preserva- 

 tion of its rivers, the salmon will soon become extinct in Spain. 



As far as I have been able to find out, the salmon exists only in the provinces of 

 Asturias and Santander, and, though there are salmon-trout in the rivers of Galicia, 

 I believe salmon is not to be found there. I suppose this is owing to the higher 

 temperature of its waters than those of Asturias and Santander, the waters of which 

 descend from the snow peaks of the Picos de Europa. In Asturias the rivers Nalon, 

 Navia and Sella contain salmon, and in Santander the Deva, Nansa, Besana, and Ason, 

 and the Bidassoa, the boundary between Spain and France. 



Owing to the enormous amount of netting that goes on at all times of the year, 

 both at the mouths of rivers and in the deep pools, especially during the summer when 

 the rivers are low, and, most of all, to the dams constructed across them for iron, soap, 

 and electric-light works, flour mills, etc., without proper sluices or salmon-ladders (such 

 as there are being netted across), not to mention the palisades purposely built up to 

 net the salmon, the fish have little or no chance of getting up the rivers, except when 

 there are very heavy floods. I have watched them vainly trying to jump some of these 

 insurmountable barriers. The waters of the rivers in Spain belong to the State, and 

 are therefore public ; but the river Ason is preserved by an angling club at Gibaja, 



