SALMON-ROE. 207 



over the lures which have been treated of, and in 

 clear water, during the day, it is almost useless. 

 Nor is the sport, if sport it can be called, by any 

 means attractive ; and the practice is so simple as 

 to render it quite unworthy of the attention of the 

 sportsman. 



That trout can detect the presence of roe in 

 their neighbourhood is certain ; but, in our opinion, 

 the distance at which it is supposed they can do so 

 is greatly exaggerated. Mr. Stoddart mentions that 

 on several occasions he captured trout which he had 

 every reason to believe had been attracted for half-a- 

 mile by the scent of this bait, which is certainly 

 giving trout credit for possessing extraordinary 

 powers of smell. We think that on the occasions 

 alluded to by Mr. Stoddart, he captured the trout 

 which belonged to a part of the river so much below 

 where he was, not because they had been attracted 

 all that distance by the smell of the roe, but because, 

 when a flood begins to subside in the fall of the 

 year, they travel upwards in search of spawning- 

 ground. As a proof of this let any one commence 

 angling with the roe in a favourable state of the 

 water during March or April,. when trout will take 

 it as readily as in November. On his first commence- 

 ment at the top of a pool, which we shall suppose 

 is a hundred yards long, he may capture in an hour 

 three or four dozen of trout ; but then there comes 

 a stop, and though he were to fish all day in the 

 same place he would get very few more. Let him 



