288 SALMON-FISHING 



inferior craftsman, compared with the sculptor. The 

 latter, however, notwithstanding that he plainly knew 

 nothing or little of the habits of salmon, relied upon 

 his own address and attainments, as a Cockney angler, 

 to achieve something extraordinary. Accordingly, 

 instead of chiming in with the approved practice of the 

 district, he chose to resort, as a means of capturing 

 the fish in question, to the mode of taking trout 

 adopted on some of the English rivers, and actually 

 plied Tweed with a tackle comprising nearly a dozen 

 hooks and a whole string of pellets weighing almost a 

 quarter of a pound, while the bait, in absence of a 

 bleak or gudgeon, consisted of an entire parr or finger- 

 ling. This he pitched from him, by means of a long, 

 stiff rod, to an extraordinary distance, not less cer- 

 tainly than forty or fifty yards, allowing his line to 

 spin out through the rings, and recovering it by the 

 double action of his reel and hand, until the bait, having 

 completed its course of transit, hung suspended mid- 

 way betwixt the butt and top-piece. He then repeated, 

 in a similar manner, the cast or heave out, causing the 

 parr, as it returned towards him, to revolve with con- 

 siderable speed and no doubt attract the notice of all 

 the finny tribe within range of observation. I need 

 not, however, state the result. The craziest salmon 

 that ever cleft water would scarcely dream of showing 

 snout to such a contrivance. At that season of the 

 year especially, it was then about the end of autumn, 

 there was not the smallest chance of obtaining even an 

 offer, and unless the tackle should happen, by pure 

 accident, to run athwart some spawning fish lying heed- 

 less on its redd, our distinguished sculptor might have 

 ventured cast after cast, during a whole term of weeks, 

 without being able to hit the features of a solitary grilse. 



