Salmon-fishing Catching the Fish. 127 



and those of their neighbors over the question, Why does 

 the salmon take the fly ? 



If we are a little more modest in our generalization, 

 and say that salmon feed seldom and sparingly after en- 

 tering fresh water, it seems to me we will have a theory 

 more easily reconciled with the admitted facts, and one 

 in every way quite as serviceable. I have heard that 

 that species of man known as a hostler chews a straw, 

 and that the card-sharper masticates a toothpick both 

 with no ulterior end in view. But they are no work 

 from nature's hand. When animals in a state of nature 

 seize an object, they do so, as far as I am advised, for a 

 definite purpose. Excluding attack upon or defence 

 from an enemy, it is either for food, or to transport 

 the object to another place where it may be of use to 

 them. No intimation or suggestion has yet reached me 

 that salmon apply artificial flies, or anything resembling 

 them, to any purpose whatever. It seems much simpler 

 and far less of a tax on our credulity, to believe that 

 they take them purely and simply as things edible. That 

 of the many salmon which see the angler's fly during the 

 course of a day's fishing, but comparatively very few in- 

 deed can be induced to make the slightest effort to take 

 it, seems to me consistent with and confirmatory of the 

 position we have assumed; and that the theory that sal- 

 mon do feed in fresh water, though sparingly, and that 

 when they take the fly they take it as and for food, have 

 at least the weight of probability strongly in their favor. 



During this digression let us suppose the angler to 

 have jointed his rod and prepared his cast, and that he 

 stands upon the river's bank ready for action. 



