A Royal Sport. 255 



till the close of the fight when it lies " broad upon 

 its breathless side," a rich and beauteous prize, 

 there rages within the breast of the angler a wild 

 conflict of hopes and fears, exultations and alarms, 

 that rise and swell with the varying fortunes of 

 the struggle without, and create such an intensity 

 of delirious excitement as none but a salmon-fisher 

 can ever know. 



" Now hope exalts the fisher's beating heart, 

 Now he turns pale, and fears his dubious art." 



And yet, amid all this tumult of emotions he must 

 maintain the cool head and the steady hand, to 

 realise every new situation, and be ready to guard 

 against its attendant risks, to meet every change 

 in the enemy's front by a change of tactics, and 

 to make its every humour subservient to his ends ; 

 in short, to be ever fertile in resources, self-possessed 

 in direst need. 



But all anglers, as I have said, are not salmon- 

 fishers and there may be some kinds of salmon- 

 fishing, too, where there is not much angling ; and 

 while I yield to none in my esteem for the royal 

 sport, when followed in the spirit of a royal sports- 

 man, I might still recognise the highest angling 

 art in some mere trout-fisher whose hooks were 

 never guilty of a salmon's blood. Indeed, many 

 excellent salmon -fishers, although fully alive to 



