96 SALMON FISHING. 



sense my mistress " the fairest and most loving 

 wife" in many a wild and lonely spot where but 

 for her gentle companionship and solace, I should 

 have felt myself in every sense of the word alone. 

 But though it would perhaps be impossible, 

 honestly, and " unbiassed by self-profit," to award 

 the palm of superiority to either of our three 

 national sports as a whole, I unhesitatingly assert 

 that there is no single moment with horse or gun 

 into which is concentrated such a thrill of hope, 

 fear, expectation, and exultation as that of the 

 rise and successful striking of a heavy Salmon^ 

 I have seen men literally unable to stand, or to 

 hold their rod, from sheer excitement. 



And indeed in this very excitement in the 

 impetuosity of spirit it engenders lies almost the 

 only real difficulty of Salmon-fishing. Two 

 causes combine to make the moment of striking a 

 critical one : In the first place the Salmon is so 

 large and bright, and in the second so compara- 

 tively slow-moving, owing to his bulk, that the eye 

 almost certainly perceives him in the water before 

 he has actually taken the fly ; when a premature 

 stroke, an almost instinctive tightening of the 

 muscles and line, at once snatches the fly from 

 the fish, and the fish from the creel. The art 



