252 MY SPORTING HOLIDAYS 



in a mackintosh under my arm, I began to think it 

 weighed, not 14 pounds, but 40. To complete the 

 pleasing memories of that particular day, a few hours 

 later I received a message that Alec Henderson had 

 killed his first bull elk in Laerdal. 



It may be as well here to remind ourselves that 

 it is not necessary to cross the North Sea in order to 

 experience the joys of salmon-fishing. 



Some of my happiest fishing holidays have been 

 spent in Ireland, and one has only to read that 

 delightful*? book ' A Year of Liberty ' to appreciate 

 how large and varied a field for the angler is to be 

 found in the Emerald Isle. 



It was on the banks of the river Lee, in the South 

 of Ireland, on a bright day in spring, that I first 

 learned how to catch a salmon with a worm. My tutor 

 on that occasion was Richard Barter, of St. Anne's, 

 near Blarney, a thorough all-round sportsman. I 

 shall never forget how he proved by practical experi- 

 ment that a salmon could be caught in low water and 

 brilliant sunshine with so homely a bait as the worm. 



The strictly virtuous and high- class fisherman may 

 possibly frown at the idea of bait-fishing for salmon. 

 So good an all-round sportsman and keen fisherman 

 as my friend Sir Herbert Maxwell, with whom I have 

 fished in company, has, as I happen to know, strong 

 ideas on the subject. But we all of us have our 

 prejudices and our weaknesses. 



I must confess to belonging to that class of fisher- 

 men who, when they go fishing, like to catch fish 

 with the fly, of course, for choice. But sometimes 

 salmon will not look at a fly. Then, if circumstances 

 and regulations permit, fall back on some other lure, 

 say I. 



