Literature of Salmon-Fishing. 253 



greater protection. In the light of recent discov- 

 eries, and in view of the results of his own lifelong 

 labours, the late Mr Frank Buckland promised, in 

 1880, to give to the world what he quaintly styled 

 ' A Memoir of his Friend the Salmon ' ; but, alas ! 

 the genial and facile pen was to write no more. 

 The performance of this task is reserved for another, 

 and fortunate indeed will the salmon be if it find 

 as loving and as enthusiastic a biographer. 



No one would hail such a work with greater 

 delight than the true Waltonian. He is no mere 

 pot-hunter. His sport, pleasing as it is at all 

 times, derives for him a greater joy when he can 

 take an intelligent interest in the natural history 

 of the fish he seeks, and find in the study of its 

 structure and its habits the surest guide to the 

 principles of his art. 



It does not fall within the scope of this chapter 

 to do much more than give, in the briefest and 

 most practical form, the results of my experience 

 in the capture of salmon. " Sport for kings " it has 

 been called, and yet I have not accorded it the post 

 of honour. To the salmon himself, probably, the 

 post of honour would, in this case, as in many 

 more, seem the post of danger, and with the 

 natural instinct of self-preservation he might very 

 well be content to prefer his life to his laurels. It 

 is not, however, from any desire to accommodate 



