CHAPTER I 



SALMON FISHING IN ENGLAND 



' For often at night, in a sportive mood 

 He comes to the brim of the moon-lit flood 

 And tosses in air a cvarve aloft, 

 Like the silvery bow of the Gods, then soft 

 He plashes deUciously back in the spray, 

 While tremulous circles go spreading away.' 



Arum. 



IN all probability, if any angler in any land should be asked 

 to indicate the great game fish of the world, taken in fresh 

 water, he would say without hesitation, the salmon {Salmo 

 salar). And the same angler, without question, would concede 

 the United Kingdom, all things considered, to be the most admir- 

 able setting for the picture. I have no doubt many American 

 salmon anglers, knowing the Canadian Eestigouche, and other 

 rivers of the north and south sides of the great sea at the mouth 

 of the St. Lawrence, and the superlative gameness of the salmon, 

 might take exception to this ; but having in mind the beauties, 

 of the 'EngUsh salmon streams, the marvellous system by which 

 the sport is conserved, the pride of the people in it, the splendid 

 literature that has been developed by it, the poesy, song and 

 legend associated with it, and the type of men and women who 

 indulge in it, on the highest plane of sportsmanship, I doubt 

 if the decision could be controverted, or that many true anglers. 

 would question the justice of it. 



It requires no little temerity to criticize a sport so firmly 

 entrenched in the affections of a people, yet almost my first 

 word of praise of this sort is tempered by a criticism : the rivers^ 

 are too beautiful, too distracting for the angler with the ' artistic 



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