146 HARLING 



combed that excellent beat which is numbered Seven 

 on the Thurso, laid down his rod in despair at the 

 tail of the Sauce Pool after fishing it six times over. 

 Leaving the line trailing in the water, he bade his 

 gillie take down the gear and prepare for home. The 

 gillie, without lifting the rod, began drawing in the line 

 hand over hand ; at that moment a salmon seized the 

 fly the angler the rod and, in a few minutes, a 

 sixteen-pound spring fish was gasping on the bank. 



In spite of this and similar incidents that may come 

 to anybody's mind, salmon-fishing is an art, and the 

 greater plunder will fall to the rod of the best artist. 

 But there is one branch of salmon-fishing, known as 

 ' harling,' wherein all grades of proficients and tiros 

 are brought to a common level, so far, at least, as 

 concerns raising and hooking fish. Up to that point 

 the only skill and knowledge necessary are displayed 

 by the boatmen. 



Harling. then, is a method of angling to which no 

 sportsman who wants to get the keenest pleasure out of 

 the capture of salmon will resort unless he is driven to 

 it, and the only conditions which drive him to it are the 

 volume and weight of a river too mighty for casting. 

 In Scotland there is, practically, only one river on such 

 a scale the Tay, to wit, where harling had its origin 

 and is still practised, though not nearly to such an 

 extent as formerly. Men prefer casting the fly where 

 cast it may be, because it is only in casting that 

 the most exquisite sensation in salmon-fishing can be 

 experienced namely, that caused by a fish rising and 



