64 TRIMMERING. 



a feather (black, as most visible) on the red or 

 lower side, which, when taken by a fish will become 

 the upper, and afford a mark more readily caught 

 by the eye than the peg. 



The mode of baiting is, to pass a single hook (a 

 good-sized salmon-hook is about the best) through 

 the skin just under the back-fin. The fish sustains 

 little injury, and, if strong and healthy, may be 

 released at the end of four or five hours, with free- 

 dom in lieu of "a good-service pension/' and very 

 little the worse (in our opinion his might be less 

 unbiassed) for the discipline he has undergone. 

 Of course, having in the first instance taken the 

 bounty, in the shape of a gentle, a fly, or a red 

 worm, he ought to have been prepared for the 

 chances of war. 



The best bait for a trimmer in English lakes is 

 the roach, as being, for his sins, the strongest and 

 most tenacious of life ; in Scotch, the parr not 

 the young salmon, but the barred-trout " Salmo 

 salmulus" so classed, and properly classed, by 

 Yarrell, the greatest of authorities on fish, and 

 recognised as such by every observant sportsman 

 whom I have ever met, though contradicted by 

 inexperienced persons who talk or write of what 

 they know not. A young salmon, however care- 

 fully put on the hook, dies in a very short time. 



