THE RIVER. 323 



and if you do land your fish, you generally 

 take him up dead." 



" I think I shall try Jack Ketch again," 

 said the Scholar. 



" I shall not peach," said the Parson ; 

 " but I would not recommend you to try it 

 on any throw but this." P 



" Why not?" said the Scholar. 



" Because you must have a smooth bot- 

 tom, or you miss your fish and lose your 

 tackle. The principle of this piece of poach- 

 ing is this : — Salmon do not lie, like trout, 

 near the surface, but on the bottom. If 

 that bottom be smooth and sandy, and you 

 can throw a piece of lead at the end of your 

 line and draw it steadily across the stream, 

 it must come in contact with the side of the 

 salmon, who, like all other fish, lies with 

 his head up stream ; on feeling a check you 

 strike, in the same manner as you strike a 

 pike, across the stream, and with the point 

 of the rod low ; and if the lead be armed 

 with hooks, the chances are that one of them 

 takes effect. But as hooks will take effect 

 in weedy rocks as well as in anything else, 

 and as the bottom of the Erne is little else 

 than one continued mass of them, the 



