HOOKS, TACKLE AND FISHING GEAR. 3 
same degree as in the extreme cases above referred to, inas- 
much as such abodes of bliss in regard to salmon have un- 
fortunately long ceased to exist either in the British Islands or 
anywhere else within comfortable travelling range of Charing 
Cross. Every year the rent of a salmon river goes up ; already 
it is but little less than that of a grouse moor, and what it may 
eventually come to, if we are not all ruined in the meantime, 
doth not yet appear. 
Naturally, those who pay so dearly for their mile or half- 
mile of salmon water make up their minds to get the utmost 
possible out of it in the way of sport. The pools are assi- 
duously fished whenever the water is in ‘ possible’ condition. 
Often they are fished over two or three times a day, and some- 
times by two or three different rods ; and the consequence is 
that, at any rate after having been in the fresh water for some 
little time, and successfully resisted the first seductions thrown 
in his way, the salmon becomes much more shy and wary, 
and untemptable by fly or bait unless presented in the most 
enticing fashion. 
To this end the refinement of every part of the fishing gear 
is one of the principal, indeed, the chief means Like his 
‘star-stoled’ cousin of the chalk streams, he scrutinises with a 
practised glance the object which ‘is glittering before his eyes ; 
and, however attractive may be the lure, if the ‘line of invita- 
tion,’ as some one calls it, with which it is presented be coarse 
or clumsy, or of flattened and, therefore, non-transparent gut, it 
is ten to one that he will ‘decline with thanks.’ In short, as 
‘fine and far off’ might be taken, in the case of the trout fisher, 
as the password to success, so ‘neatness and strength’ should 
be the shibboleth of the salmon fisher, 
I make no apology, therefore, for dwelling in some detail 
upon each item of the fly-fisher’s equipment, and more espe- 
cially on that which constitutes the alpha and omega of the 
whole matter, namely, THE Hook. 
