RESORTS OF THE SALMON. 251 



panionship, are not for a moment to be compared. 

 They, in fact, no more resemble each other than does 

 the stroll of the sportsmen through a preserved park, 

 under guidance of the keeper or his assistant, to whom 

 every brood, covey, and form is as well known as 

 are the denizens of the dog-kennel themselves. They 

 differ as widely as does the straight-jacketed method of 

 cramming a game-bag differ from the free march along 

 moorland and hill- side, through heather and fern, over 

 a domain well plenished but not wedged with birds 

 where you are at liberty to follow or keep in check your 

 highly- trained setter, and, without taunt or ridicule, can 

 miss with either or both barrels some prodigy of a black- 

 cock, or a hare which in size and length of ear resembles 

 some veritable donkey. 



Having ventured these preliminary remarks, I shall 

 now proceed to give shape and arrangement to such in- 

 structions and matters of knowledge, in relation to the 

 subject of this chapter, as I think will prove of advan- 

 tage to some of my readers. And first of all, as to the 

 places or portions of a salmon-water frequented by the 

 fish, and where, in the common phrase, they are most 

 likely to take the hook. This is a question I have 

 already, to some extent, treated of in my observations 

 upon rivers, but it is one that lays claim, in the present 

 chapter, to more ample notice. 



In all rivers there are certain pools, and portions of 

 pool or stream, to which salmon naturally resort, and, 

 under ordinary circumstances, are inclined to favour the 

 angler. Nor are these always to be discovered by the 

 eye even of the most experienced and able fisher on a 

 water to which he is a perfect stranger. It is only 

 through actually testing or having them pointed out to 

 him by some resident angler, that he can acquire an 



