EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION ix 



Howbeit, despite my incredulity about what is not demon- 

 strable, I admit that I am not insensible to the charm of a 

 varied assortment of salmon flies. I find it noted in my fishing 

 book that on I5th October, 1870, I was fully under the spell of 

 Francis's precepts about a change of fly. Fishing just above 

 high tide mark in the Water of Luce, I raised a small fish five 

 times without touching him, changed the fly every time and 

 killed him, seven pounds, at the sixth rise. I cannot think that 

 the result would have been any different had I made no change, 

 which is the course I should follow now in the unromantic light 

 of experience. 



In one other matter I venture to express dissent from 

 Francis's doctrine, namely, his belief that salmon feed, in the 

 sense of taking nourishment, during their sojourn in fresh 

 water. Here, again, demonstration is difficult, if not impossible, 

 available evidence being mostly of the negative kind. 



" Salmon," says the author," do not perhaps feed very voraciously, 

 because in salmon rivers, as a general rule, food, and particularly 

 in the heavy waters salmon inhabit, is not very abundant, and the 

 salmon is not given to roaming about far from home in search of 

 food ; but I very much question if anything passes his lair within 

 eye-shot, which is at all worth his notice, that he does not take 

 stock or toll of " (p. 245). 



To the concluding sentence of this passage I may reply by 

 describing what I have witnessed in the Linn of Glencaird, 

 below a fall, or foss as it would be termed in Norway, on the 

 river Minnick. The water of this little river is crystal clear, 

 enabling one, except when it is in spate, to watch the movement 

 of fish as plainly as in any chalk stream ; the said linn is a 

 long deep pool with precipitous rocky sides. Lying on the top 

 of these rocks I have watched salmon in the depths below, 

 sometimes resting almost motionless, sometimes swimming 

 leisurely around, from time to time one flinging itself out of 

 the water for no apparent cause. Besides the salmon a few 

 small trout, five or six inches long, are poised near the surface, 

 quite fearless of the great fish below them, snapping at every 

 fly that floats within reach. I have never seen a salmon pay 

 any heed to these little fellows. Very different would have 

 been their expectation of life had the large fish been pike 

 instead of salmon. 



Even those gillies and water-bailiffs who are sensible enough 

 to perceive that the salmon rivers of Norway and Northern 



