HOOKING MY FIRST SALMON 39 



excellent amusement ; and at six o'clock returned to 

 dinner gratified with my sport, pleased with myself, 

 and at peace with all mankind, excepting that confounded 

 cozener, the tackle-merchant in Street. 



Over our wine, the conversation naturally turned 

 upon the " gentle art." My kinsman is both a practical 

 and a scientific angler. " Holding, with few excep- 

 tions, all published sporting productions in disrepute, 

 one that I remarked on your bookstand, Julius, strikes 

 me as being at the same time clever and useful : I mean 

 Sir Humphry Davy's." 



** It is both, Frank : his account of the habits and 

 natural history of the salmon species is just, ingenious, 

 and amusing ; and there is a calm and philosophic 

 spirit that pervades the whole, rendering it a work of 

 more than common interest. But, practically, it is 

 as useless as all Guides and Manuals^ since the days of 

 Walton. Of the uninitiated it will make fishermen, 

 where Colonel Hawker's directions enables a man to 

 shoot, who has never been five miles from Holborn- 

 bars. I doubt not but Sir Humphry was an ardent and 

 scientific fisherman, but in many practical points I 

 differ with him. He angled well, but he fished like a 

 philosopher. If he haunted this river for a season, 

 unless he altered his system materially, he would not 

 kill a dozen salmon. Flies, such as he describes, would 

 never, in any seasons or weathers, be successful here. 

 He fairly says, that ' different rivers require different 

 flies ; ' but nothing like those he recommends would 

 answer this one ; — and, although many of the theories 

 and speculative opinions are very ingenious, I question 

 much their validity." 



