INTRODUCTORY 



and scientific, has been proved to give results as satisfactory 

 as those achieved with trout. The all but miraculous success 

 attained by trout in New Zealand, where the fish have increased 

 in both size and numbers, beyond the wildest dreams of those 

 who first introduced them, is an exceptional triumph of ac- 

 climatisation ; but even at home many a river which had, 

 through overfishing or other causes, fallen from its high estate 

 has been marvellously restored by judicious introduction of 

 new blood. 



Salmon and trout between them fill six other chapters, 

 but few will complain of the allotment of half the book to the 

 game fish, which are treated by many hands and from a variety 

 of aspects. Angling is one of the very few sports in which 

 the sexes are on an equality, and this lends great interest to 

 Lady Evelyn Cotterell's amusing memories of the famous 

 Gordon Castle water on the Spey, while she has incidentally 

 something to say in frank criticism of more than one doctrine 

 held sacrosanct by those who too often approach their sport 

 in a spirit of "as was in the beginning," &c. Another writer 

 on the salmon, Mr. Gathorne-Hardy, turns for inspiration to 

 famous rivers of Scotland and Norway, in which, though 

 thwarted of his ambition to kill a 40-pounder, he can draw upon 

 a long retrospect of excellent sport. One, at any rate, of the 

 mishaps that befell him in Norway will be found to point a 

 moral and adorn a tale. Sir Henry Seton-Karr, most ver- 

 satile of sportsmen, ranges over a yet wider territory in both 

 hemispheres, and recalls good days and bad with both salmon 

 and trout. 



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