MAY 117 



were plenty of fish about. They began making most 

 picturesque rises at the fly I offered them, but showed 

 themselves remarkably char about mouthing it. Either 

 there was no sensible touch at all, or a mere momentary 

 twitch on the line ; or the line tightened, the greenheart 

 bent only to resume their normal condition like a flash. 

 It was all the same what fly was exhibited Jock Scotts, 

 Silver Greys, winged flies or wingless all met with 

 attention, but of a very cursory description. Two-and- 

 twenty fish I touched that day, holding some of them for 

 a turn or two ; others just straightened the line and no 

 more. At evening my total bag was two salmon, and 

 such had been the mood of the fish that I considered 

 myself precious lucky to have scored at all. 



How do they do it? It must be a risky game, one 

 should say, to take bent, barbed steel into the mouth and 

 eject it ; yet of these fish only five per cent, that came to 

 the fly paid the penalty of curiosity. Well, here is my 

 suggestion for what it is worth. Not mine either ; it was 

 contained in a letter published in the Field newspaper 

 many years ago by a gentleman who said he had observed 

 closely the behaviour of certain fish in his aquarium. On 

 some days they were eagerly ready for food, and seized it 

 with open mouths and distended gills. When they closed 

 their mouths, the water escaped through the gills and the 

 morsel went down the gullet. On other days they showed 

 but a languid interest in the food offered. They would 

 take it, indeed, with open mouth, but the gill covers 

 remained closed; so that the water could only escape 

 through the mouth in a reflux current, which generally 

 carried out the food with it. Herein seems to be the 

 explanation of short-rising. If the gills of a salmon or 



