NATURAL HISTORY OF BRITISH SALMONIDJE. 131 



the instances quoted is far from being invariable ; and as it 

 has been found that the time of salmon ascending and spawn- 

 ing frequently differs in neighbouring rivers of the same district 

 — in some cases even where their sources and channels are 

 apparently of a similar nature— it is very possible that we have 

 yet to arrive at the whole truth respecting the causes of these 

 variations. 



With regard to the sort of resting places or holding grounds 

 which salmon most frequent, they appear, as often as not, to be 

 guided by sheer caprice. There are some pools which, to the 

 angling eye, or, at any rate, the uneducated angling eye, are 

 apparently perfection, and which yet seem never to hold a 

 fish from year's end to year's end, or if they do hold a fish 

 they are fish which cannot be induced to take the fly or bait. 

 Indeed, there are particular stones in particular rivers behind 

 which for some inscrutable reason, salmon will almost invari- 

 ably be found. I know just such an one in the Conway, and 

 there is another, if I recollect rightly, in the Tweed. It does 

 not signify how often the salmon sheltering behind these stones 

 is caught — I have known three thus taken in one day — his 

 place appears to be filled again almost immediately. 



Still, notwithstanding this capriciousness of salmon in the. 

 choice of water, there are some general rules which may serve 

 as approximate guides to the salmon fly-fisher when unassisted 

 by local knowledge. Where the bed of the river is of bare or 

 naked rock, unbroken by ledges or 'shelters' of any sort, 

 salmon — or, at any rate, rising salmon — will rarely be found. 

 All sorts of shelters and rocky excrescences are, no doubt, in 

 themselves favourable for salmon, both as affording shelter 

 from the stream and a point of outlook from which fly and other 

 bait may be advantageously perceived ; but, as Mr. Stoddart 

 also points out in his ' Angler's Rambles,' the ledges of rock 

 and large stones to which salmon instinct inclines ' will in- 

 variably be found, when the salmon are settled down, to lie 

 in conjunction with or in the vicinity of a firm gravelly 

 ^^alveiis" ' Elsewhere, Mr. Stoddart illustrates this fact by the 



K 2 



