Salmon -Fishing. 407 



be spun. One end of the worm, after it is thus soaked, is pinned 

 to a board, and the other stretched out some eight or ten inches 

 and secured. When this is hardened, it becomes the beautiful 

 white, round gut of commerce, which, when stained water-color, and 

 dropped lightly in the pool, will not be noticed by the fish. 



In the matter of rods, the conservative man still clings to a well- 

 made wooden one of greenheart or other approved wood, of which 

 the taper and strength are so accurately proportioned that the addition 

 of but a few ounces at the end of the line carries the main bend or 

 arch nearer the butt end. Those who are not so conservative, and 

 who are fond of lessening in every practicable way the somewhat 

 tedious labor of casting the fly, choose a rod of split bamboo, which 

 weighs about two pounds. My own weighs but twenty-seven ounces, 

 although nearly sixteen feet long. No one will risk himself upon a 

 stream without extra rod, reels, and lines, and if he takes a green- 

 heart and split bamboo, he has two as good rods as are made. One 

 who has long used a heavy wooden rod has at first a feeling of 

 insecurity and a distrust of the slender bamboo, which can, if neces- 

 sary, be wielded by a single strong arm. It is said an old Scotch- 

 man, handling one of these rods for the first time, exclaimed : " Do 

 ye ca' that a tule to kie a saumont wi' ? I wad na gie it to my 

 bairnies to kie a gilsie wi'." It should be explained that a grilse 

 is a young salmon just returned from a first trip to the sea. After 

 its second trip, it returns a salmon proper, with all the characteristic 

 markings. It often happens that a grilse (called by the Scotch " gilsie," 

 or salmon-peel) is larger than a salmon one or two years older, the 

 varieties differ so in size. The young of the salmon are first called 

 parrs, and have peculiar spots and dark bars, or "finger-marks," as 

 they are called. At eighteen months, they are some six inches long, 

 and the following spring silver scales grow over the bars and spots, 

 when they are called smolt, retaining that name until they go to sea. 

 For a long time the parr was held to be a species of trout, and 

 entirely distinct from salmon. Lord Scrope, the auxhor of " Days and 

 Nights of Salmon- Fishing," a work now extremely rare, held long 

 and animated discussions with James Hogg, th< " Kttrick-Shep- 

 herd," upon this subject, which was settled practically by a Mr. Shaw, 

 of Drumlanrig, who tagged a parr and identified it again as a full 

 grown salmon in 1836. 



