268 Salmon- Fishing. 



you have kindly sent to him over the water, and 

 does not intend to come." In the case of salmon 

 that do not find their natural food on the surface 

 of the water, it is, in most instances, mere caprice 

 that leads them to rise to a fly at all ; and we need 

 not, therefore, attribute to defective vision the fact 

 that they do not always leave their native depths, 

 and make after every fanciful object that flits across 

 the surface. Even when desire has prompted them 

 to rise to what they see, their somewhat dignified 

 movements may not bring them to the surface ere 

 the lure has passed beyond their reach. 



Salmon have their favourite haunts in a river, 

 and these are not always of one character. In 

 those rivers or parts of rivers over whose channels 

 rocks and boulders are freely dispersed, harbours 

 of refuge are numerous, and it would be a difficult 

 matter for one previously unacquainted with the 

 water to say where a fish might lie and where it 

 might not. For salmon are very fastidious in their 

 choice of an abode. They select retreats that seem 

 to us to possess no special recommendation, and 

 pass over others that we should consider peculiarly 

 adapted for their purpose. But we need not com- 

 plain that in this matter, as in many others, they 

 exercise their own discretion. Doubtless, in their 

 selection they study their own convenience, and 

 not the angler's, and consider the questions of food, 



