JANUARY 15 



minnow. The strange chronicle, ex- 

 tending over a good many years, showed 

 that of all the salmon taken from Loch 

 Tay, 75 per cent were lured by a phantom 

 with a golden belly and a blue back. This 

 statement seemed so clearly conclusive 

 that nobody called it in question at the 

 time ; but now a doubt occurs. Did the 

 sportsman give an equal chance to each 

 of the variants of the phantom ? It 

 is extremely improbable that he did. 

 Naturally he would be biased in favour 

 of the pattern which, whether from luck 

 or for some definite reason, took the 

 lead early in the progress of his experi- 

 ment, and would give it unduly frequent 

 opportunities. 



Still, we are not altogether without 

 positive knowledge as regards the dis- 

 position of salmon towards lures. In 

 certain lakes, it has been found, salmon 

 take phantoms of a clay-red hue more 

 eagerly than any others ; these lakes 

 hold char, which are markedly of that 

 colour. Therefore it is not unreasonable 



