25 a ON SALMON-FISHING WITH THE FLY. 



intimate knowledge with respect to the different casts ; 

 whereas, in the case of a purely treating stream, his 

 own practised eye is sufficient to direct him where to 

 throw, and will detect at once, without fail, the likeliest 

 feeding-grounds and places of resort. 



As a general rule applicable to salmon-streams, the 

 fish, on the subsiding of the flood or swell, which forces 

 them either from the sea itself, or higher up the river, 

 take refuge, in their healthy state, among rocks or large 

 stones, both of which are to be found in marked abun- 

 dance in all well-reputed salmon-rivers. It is not, how- 

 ever, every rock or large stone that the salmon will 

 choose to frequent ; nor does the seeming convenience 

 of this or that place of shelter always prove attractive to 

 it. As in respect to its food, so in respect to its accom- 

 modation, the fish is royally fastidious, passing over, on 

 occasions, what seems, in point of structure, to be 

 adapted for its concealment and habits, and selecting 

 instead what to our fancy is less in unison with them. 

 Thus, for instance, in a long stretch of water, to all ap- 

 pearance the most inviting, being full of breaks and 

 gorges, walled with rocks and teeming with places of 

 retreat and security, have I failed, times without num- 

 ber, to stir a single fin ; while at its neck, where the 

 river widens up, and at which the only appearance of 

 shelter is a dimly-discernible slab of stone, half-imbedded 

 among gravel, I scarcely ever heave a fly without doing 

 execution. Nor do I state this circumstance as a soli- 

 tary one, seeing I could point out on various rivers 

 many such positions, taken up and held in retention by 

 salmon, apparently out of sheer caprice, but no doubt 

 from some reason which their natural instinct leads 

 them to have respect to. What this reason is I shall 

 not stay to inquire. It may stand connected with the 



