90 SINGULAR CONDUCT OF SALMON. [PART I. 
accursed bag-nets, which were waiting to receive 
them a couple of miles below, and which had, for 
some time previously, yielded comparatively little. 
It is said that the Salmon have never forgotten or 
forgiven this interference with the natural order 
of things, and that those which now visit his river 
are neither so numerous nor so large as those 
which used to do so before this dodge was at- 
tempted. 
After Salmon have been hooked, if they have 
not been very sharply struck, they will not unfre- 
quently allow themselves to be drawn along for a 
considerable distance—even till close to the shore 
—quietly following the pull of the line, without 
the slightest struggle or attempt at resistance, and 
apparently quite unconscious of their danger. 
I am somewhat at a loss to know how this is 
to be accounted for. It can scarcely be that they 
do not feel the hook, for, although a Salmon will 
sometimes rise at a fly several times in succession, 
and perhaps be caught after all by a judicious 
1 Having given this story on the authority of some of this 
gentleman’s neighbours, I am bound to add, that, from what 
I have subsequently heard, I fancy they made the most of it 
in the telling. As, however, I believe there is still a good deal 
of truth about it, I let it stand with this reservation. 
