and the Maritiiiie Provinces. 217 



that salmon never feed in fresh water, but it is a fact that fresh-run salmon 

 are taken regularly, in some rivers, on a bait of angle worms, and it cannot 

 reasonably be supposed that they take worms for any other object than for 

 food. 



Although a salmon-fly is not an imitation of anything that lives, yet 

 when it is skilfully fished in the current of a river it presents a very 

 attractive appearance. The opening and shutting of the hackle, as well 

 as the very natural and lifelike movements of the wings, the flashing of 

 the tinsel and the golden pheasant topping gives the counterfeit really a 

 more lifelike appearance than any live insect presents in the water. It is 

 a beautiful as well as an ingeniously gotten-up fraud, and it is not at all 

 surprising that the fish are deceived by it. 



The highest attainment in the art of salmon fishing consists princi- 

 pally in being able to present the fly to the fish in a manner that will 

 attract it, and in handling the lure in such a way that the fish will not be 

 likely to miss it when he attempts to take it in his mouth. 



In shooting birds on the wing, easy and difficult shots are met with : 

 there are straight-aways, right and left quarterers at all sorts of angles, 

 and' at varying rates of flight. It is similar in salmon fishing, only the 

 fish takes the place of the shooter, — the fly represents the bird, and the 

 angler should always try to work his fly so as to give the salmon an easy 

 shot, which means a good opportunity to get it well in his mouth when he 

 comes for it. 



That there is so little salmon fishing within the borders of the United 

 States is a source of constant regret to American anglers. There are a 

 number of salmon in rivers that flow into the Pacific ocean, but as a 

 Scotchman said in regard to the salmon in them, " We hae nae use for a 

 saumon, it'll no rise to a flee " ! Salmon are taken in large numbers in the 

 vicinity of Tacoma, Wash., by trolling with a spoon, usually on a hand- 

 line, but as they do not seem to rise freely to a fly, they are hardly worth 

 the attention of those who follow salmon fishing as a recreation. 



There is only one river in the United States and on the Atlantic sea- 

 board from which salmon are taken with a fly in notable numbers, and 

 that is the Penobscot river in Maine. One frequently reads on hotel bills 

 of fare the legend, " Kennebec salmon," but the Kennebec river long ago 

 ceased to yield salmon on account of dams having been built without 

 proper fishways through them, preventing the salmon from reaching their 

 natural spawning beds on the upper reaches of the river. Future genera- 

 tions will probably correct this by seeing that all dams are more scientifi- 

 cally and more wisely built. 



The question may be asked, why salmon have become extinct in nearly 

 all of our once famous salmon rivers, when countries with a much older 

 civilization than ours have succeeded in preserving salmon in their 



