HOOKING MY FIRST SALMON 39 



excellent amusement ; and at six o'clock returned to 

 dinner gratified with my sport, pleased with myself, 

 and at peace with all mankind, excepting that confounded 

 cozener, the tackle-merchant in Street. 



Over our wine, the conversation naturally turned 

 upon the " gentle art." My kinsman is both a practical 

 and a scientific angler. " Holding, with few excep- 

 tions, all published sporting productions in disrepute, 

 one that I remarked on your bookstand, Julius, strikes 

 me as being at the same time clever and useful : I mean 

 Sir Humphry Davy's." 



"It is both, Frank : his account of the habits and 

 natural history of the salmon species is just, ingenious, 

 and amusing ; and there is a calm and philosophic 

 spirit that pervades the whole, rendering it a work of 

 more than common interest. But, practically, it is 

 as useless as all Guides and Manuals, since the days of 

 Walton. Of the uninitiated it will make fishermen, 

 where Colonel Hawker's directions enables a man to 

 shoot, who has never been five miles from Holborn- 

 bars. I doubt not but Sir Humphry was an ardent and 

 scientific fisherman, but in many practical points I 

 differ with him. He angled well, but he fished like a 

 philosopher. If he haunted this river for a season, 

 unless he altered his system materially, he would not 

 kill a dozen salmon. Flies, such as he describes, would 

 never, in any seasons or weathers, be successful here. 

 He fairly says, that ' different rivers require different 

 flies ; ' but nothing like those he recommends would 

 answer this one ; and, although many of the theories 

 and speculative opinions are very ingenious, I question 

 much their validity." 



