94 THAMES AND OTHEK ANGLERS. 



fingers. Fishers who live in the yicinity of large cities are 

 obliged in consequence to content themselves with the realisation 

 of that old proverb which tells them that small fish are better 

 than no fish at all ; hence there is a race of anglers who are 

 contented to sit all day in a punt on the Thames, happy when 

 evening arrives to find their patience rewarded with a fisher's 

 dozen of stupid gudgeons. But in the north, on the lakes of 

 Cumberland or on the Highland lochs of Scotland, such tame 

 sport would be laughed at. Are there not charr in the Derwent 

 and splendid trout in Loch Awe ? and these require to be pur- 

 sued with a zeal, and involve an amount of labour, not under- 

 stood by anglers who punt for gudgeon or who haunt the East 

 India Docks for perch, or the angler who only knows the usual 

 run of Thames fish — barbel, roach, dace, and gudgeon. To kill 

 a sixteen-pound salmon on a Welsh or Highland stream is to be 

 named a knight among anglers; indeed, there are men who 

 never lift a rod except to kiU a salmon ; such, however, like the 

 Duke of Koxburghe, are giants among their fellows. For sport 

 there is no fish like the "monarch of the brook," and great 

 anglers wiU not waste time on any fish less noble. An angler, 

 with a moderate-sized fish of the salmon kind at the end of his 

 line, is not in the enjoyment of a sinecure, although he would 

 not for any kind of reward allow his work to be done by deputy. 

 I have seen a gentleman play a iish for four hours rather than 

 yield his rod to the attendant gUlie, who could have landed the 

 fish in half-an-hour's time. It is a thrilling moment to find that, 

 for the first time, one has hooked a salmon, and the event pro- 

 duces a nervousness that certainly does not tend to the speedy 

 laiiding of the fish. The first idea, naturally enough, is to haul 

 our scaly friend out of the water by sheer force ; but this plan 

 has speedily to be abandoned, for the fish, making an astonished 

 dash, rushes away up stream in fine style, taking out no end of 

 "rope ;" then when once it obtains a bite of its bridle away it 

 goes sulking into some rocky hiding-place. In a brief time it 

 comes out again with renewed vigour, determined as it would 

 seem to try your mettle ; and so it dashes about till you become 

 so fatigued as not to care whether you land it or not. It is 

 impossible to say how long an angler may have to " play " a 

 salmon or a large grilse ; but if it sinks itself to the bottom of 

 a deep pool, it may be a business of hours to get it safe into the 

 landing net, if the fish be not altogether lost, as in its exertions 

 to escape it may so chafe the line as to cause it to snap, and thus 



