364 SALMON AND TROUT. 



preserved in salt used with great success, and indeed it is 

 difficult to see why it is thought necessary to boil them. The 

 boiling process doubtless gives them a very attractive appear- 

 ance, but a salmon in a predatory humour is no respecter of 

 colour. It is the smell that is the attraction ; otherwise how 

 could fish feed on worms, and other natural food, in thick 

 water in a heavy flood, when it is impossible for them to see an 

 inch before them ? That fish possess considerable powers of 

 smell is well known, and is proved if only by the fact that 

 salmon roe will attract trout to it from an almost incredible 

 distance down stream, in flooded water. I have never heard 

 of an instance of a salmon being caught by an artificial prawn 

 when fished like the real bait. 



' There are many different sorts of tackle used for fishing 

 with the prawn. I have tried most of them, and as I think 

 that nothing can beat one that was shown to me by Mr. 

 Barter, a well-known and most successful salmon fisher in the 

 South of Ireland, I append a drawing of it This gentleman 

 has made prawn, as well as every other mode of bait fishing, 

 his especial study, and I know no better authority on such 

 matters. 



' Fig. i represents the tackle before the prawn is put on. 

 The point of the needle is to be inserted in the tail and 

 brought out at the middle of the breast, the point protruding 

 about one-eighth of an inch ; the small loop underneath the 

 shank of the lowermost double hooks is then drawn over the 

 point and pulled up as far as it will go, and the tail made 

 fast to the trace by binding it with one or two turns of red 

 cotton thread. 



' If it is thought necessary, in order to prevent the action of 

 the stream from tearing off the scales, the binding can be con- 

 tinued four or five turns towards the head and back again to 

 the tail and there fastened off. If this is carefully and artisti- 

 cally done, a prawn should last a long time even in a rapid 

 stream. When preserved any length of time in glycerine it 

 will generally require binding, but if it has been kept in salt 



