252 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING. 



Strike your fish over the shoulders if you can, and 

 bring your boat in such a position as to make the stroke 

 as vertical as possible. Wheji you have fixed him, hold 

 him to the ground a space ; then run your hands down 

 the pole, making the distance between them and the 

 fish as short as you conveniently can ; lift the animal 

 with his head uppermost, by which means he will come 

 out lighter, and such action as he may make with his 

 tail will assist you rather than himself. 



If you do not bear in mind this instruction, and 

 choose to have a go at a salmon at a little distance 

 from you, as having a way of your own, I will tell you 

 what will probably happen from this freak also. The 

 stroke will drive back the boat, and you and the fish 

 will part company. You may have struck him, 

 perhaps, — not impossible that ; but your intended 

 victim twists off in a moment, and says as plainly as 

 a salmon can speak, " levro l'incommodo." 



I should observe, that in burning the water by night 

 there is no time to fix every fish to the ground, and 

 that they are then most usually lifted quickby ; indeed, 

 as the boat falls gradually down the stream, it generally 

 comes over them conveniently enough. 



To these various methods of taking fish, I must add 

 the destruction by means of rake-hooks. The tackle 

 is very simple : it consists of two strong hooks, about 

 two or three inches long, tied back to back, and 

 fastened to twisted gut, on which are put five or six 

 large shot, at equal distances from each other. The 

 fisherman, with a strong rod, throws the line, with 

 these bare hooks attached to it, about a foot beyond 



