VALUE OF THE SALMON. 15 



taken on the rod-fisheries of the Tweed (and Tweed is 

 not an extreme case) was lately calculated as varying 

 between £3 and £5, counting nothing for time and for 

 travelling expenses, — the latter item, it must be under- 

 stood, being proportionately very heavy, because a salmon- 

 fisher cannot, like a grouse-shooter, remain at his station 

 for weeks together, but is restricted to only two or three 

 days after each flood. Yet the money is cheerfully paid, 

 and the disappointments no less cheerfully endured. 

 Salmon-fishing is indeed a passion, perhaps unaccount- 

 able as to its origin, but certainly irrepressible in an ever- 

 increasing proportion of the people ; while in individuals 

 the appetite, once implanted, almost invariably grows 

 rapidly till the end on the very little indeed that it now- 

 a-days has to feed upon. It is strange to think of the 

 exceeding desperateness of the chances of success which 

 sufiice to tempt men away from their business and their 

 families to some of our salmon-streams ; yet those who have 

 most often felt and seen the hopelessness of the under- 

 taking, are just those who are most eager to try it again. 

 Look at that otherwise sensible and respectable person, 

 standing midway in the gelid Tweed (it is early spring 

 or latest autumn, the only seasons when there is now 

 much chance), his shoulders aching, his teeth chittering, 

 his coat-tails afloat, his basket empty. A few hours 

 ago probably, he left a comfortable home, pressing busi- 

 ness, waiting clients, and a dinner engagement. On 

 arriving at his " water," the keeper, as the tone of keepers 

 now is, despondingly informed him that there is " nae 

 head (shoal) o' fish," although at the utmost " there may 

 be a happenin' beast," or, as we have heard it expressed 



