ON SALMON-FISHING WITH THE FLY. 



hold ahead, yet in despair and fury showing front to 

 its savage assailant. I have not described the crouch- 

 ing and spring of the dauntless hound, the defiant 

 menacing posture of the deer at bay, with its fruitless 

 attempts to ward off the fatal grasp ; all this the 

 piteous wind-up of a more prolonged tragedy can 

 scarcely with truth be included among the delights of 

 deer-stalking, or if ever esteemed so, it is only by the 

 steeled and semi-barbarous mind by one of matador 

 breed, not by the sterling, generous-hearted sportsman. 



Allowing to these recreations fox-hunting and deer- 

 stalking all they lay claim to as interesting, manly, and 

 exciting pastimes, I cannot help preferring to either of 

 them indeed, to any of our national amusements what- 

 soever the noble sport of salmon-fishing. The others, 

 it is true, have their moments and intervals of extreme 

 it may be thrilling, pleasure ; even their blanks and 

 disasters scarcely, on some occasions, deserve the name 

 of disappointments or calamities. But there is wanting 

 that indescribable something which gives its zest to the 

 other, rendering its pursuit throughout more equably 

 pleasurable, and yet offering no hindrance to higher and 

 intenser occasions of enjoyment, created, for instance, 

 by the play and capture of some vigorous and magni- 

 ficent fish. 



"When I speak, however, of salmon-fishing, I renounce 

 all allusion to it as practised under that name by the 

 aristocratic frequenters of certain portions of Tweed. To 

 those who live at a distance from this river, the feats 

 recorded and vaunted of, from time to time, by these 

 noble piscatores, may appear, as displays of skill and 

 craft, highly creditable to the parties engaged. To the 

 spectators of them, they are, in many instances, next 

 thing to farcical quite undeserving the name and cha- 



