86 SALMON AND TROUT. 
Putting this question aside, however, the use of the landing 
net, as I have observed, is practically confined to fish under 
about ‘salmon size,’ the gaff, on the score of portability, pos- 
sessing a decided advantage in the case of heavier weights. 
Turning, therefore, to the subject of nets adapted for the pur- 
pose indicated, we find that the stimulus given to angling 
inventions by the Fisheries Exhibition has not left us without 
some distinct advance in this direction also. 
The portability of nets, as well as of gaffs, is of primary 
importance to the trout fisher, who constantly does his work 
without an attendant. This is one sort of portability. Another 
is the portability of the net, not as considered with reference to 
the fly-fisher’s shoulder or pocket, but in regard to his rod case 
or portmanteau. A net that does not ‘compress’ or fold up in 
some form or other is a most unmanageable and inconvenient 
addition to a traveller’s zmpedimenta, and numerous inventions 
have accordingly been made to supply this demand. Hoop- 
shaped nets, both of steel and whalebone, which stretch out at 
full length and thus form, when not in use, an appendage that 
can be readily strapped on to, or carried in the rod case, are 
amongst the ingenious dodges which the inventive talent of 
tackle-makers or their patrons have called into existence, and 
several of the most recent of these will be found figured in the 
appendix to Vol. II. A less modern invention was the steel 
hoop in three joints, which, when out of work, could be folded 
up with the net around it into a shape and compass not much 
unlike that of the fish itself. This net, however, has the dis- 
advantage of being heavy, and unsuited to the second great 
requirement in the matter of portability—so far as the fly- 
fisher or worm-fisher is concerned—or, in fact, in the case of 
anyone who fishes without an attendant—namely, that he 
should be able to carry his own net, and that in a form and in 
a position where it will be most out of the way when not re- 
quired, and most ready at hand when wanted. 
This position is undoubtedly under, or just behind, the 
left arm or shoulder of the fisherman. Here it would or 
