AUTHOR'S LIMITATION. 237 



excite suspicion. As far as my own experience lias led 

 me to judge, I generally find that a grilse or salmon, if 

 inclined to rise a second time, is as ready to do so at the 

 fly first offered it, as at any other ; nay, I have even, on 

 more occasions than one, raised the same fish, before 

 hooking, four or five times in rapid succession with the 

 same identical lure. Of course, my doing so was more 

 a matter of chance than good guidance, and I should not, 

 on general occasions, were I fishing carefully, have 

 encountered the risk my perseverance was likely to incur 

 of disheartening, if not disgusting the salmon. 



I am of this opinion, however, talking more generally 

 on the subject, that if one only knows how to adapt the 

 size of his hook to the state of the water and season, and 

 is acquainted with two, or at most three approved of local 

 flies, he will find it not only quite unnecessary but posi- 

 tively disadvantageous to experiment upon the tastes 

 and fancies of the fish with others of a doubtful and 

 untried nature. The only occasions on which he has an 

 excuse for doing this, are when the pools have been well 

 thrashed over before him by resident anglers ; nay, even 

 then, he will find it expedient in selecting a hook, not 

 to deviate very largely from the discovered likings or 

 prejudices of the salmon frequenting this or that locality. 

 He never, acting otherwise, can fish with any proper 

 measure of confidence, and that very fact only renders 

 his experiment the more precarious. 



I shall now proceed, without further remark, to draw 

 out lists of the most approved Scottish salmon flies, 

 adapting them severally to their appropriate rivers. I 

 shall also introduce into the proposed classification, a 

 limited number of Irish fly-hooks, such as gradually, of 

 late years, have been adopted by our fishermen, and 

 become of common use throughout Scotland, 



