THE SNIPE LOCHS. FISH-LORE. 101 



not feed : pray what did they want with your flies 

 and Major Duncan's spinning-tackle ? " 



" To kill a moving object : habit and not hunger ; 

 just as a hawk or a ferret will do when it takes its 

 fancy, hungry or not." 



" Beasonable, but puzzling." 



"No 'doubt; but Nature arranges that as salmon 

 crowding in the shallows, and occupied with spawn- 

 ing, could not get food, it is provided by Nature that 

 then they do not NEED food, and are like hybernating 

 animals : their work over, they eat with a vengeance. 

 Clean salmon are ever capricious and uncertain, and 

 while the rivers in autumn teem with fish, you will 

 often not get a rise : had they been like hungry kelts, 

 that would never happen." 



" Queer business ! Why, salmon culture and man- 

 hood suffrage might occupy parliament for a century. 

 I suppose it is late ? Ah, yes. No rubber to-night." 



On going to the door we saw it was a lovely night, 

 the bright stars and the new moon shining in quiet 

 glory ; but we had a day's salmon-fishing before us, 

 and did not remain long out. 



