OO THE SALMON FISHER. 



Their instinct is upward. A fresh-run fish goes down 

 stream only when he is bewildered, or when he 

 cannot help it. I do not think a headlong pitch 

 down a rapid is ever a part of his recognized tactics. 

 It takes his breath away. When a fish gets into a 

 rapid he becomes passive at once and is swept down 

 the current like a dead fish. He makes no effort to 

 bore his way up, but tugs at the line in a dogged endea- 

 vor to get loose somehow, and is swept down until he 

 fetches up in an eddy, or perhaps in still water be- 

 hind a boulder. As a rule, the methods of a salmon 

 on a hook comprise a series of short runs alternating 

 with circular sweeps, as Francis Francis has men- 

 tioned. Indeed, what can he do otherwise, with a 

 vertical lifting power at his nose which never relaxes 

 except when he temporarily ceases his own exer- 

 tions ? Then of course the angler at once reels him 

 in, passive, toward the ever ready gaff, and there is 

 nothing for him to do but to make another desper- 

 ate break for liberty, and pull away with all his 

 might. When he does this he makes the reel sing 

 again, which is the music the angler likes so much 

 to hear. It must be a prodigious exertion for him 



