THE FAMOUS FLAT ROCK POOL NIPISSIGUIT RIVER 



SALMON FISHING AT THE CLUBS 



[Golden Rod and Silver Doctor] 

 BY CHARLES HALLOCK 



N CASTING about among the 

 many angling books which 

 have been written, I discover 

 that the literature of the sal- 

 mon is for the most part 

 painfully hackneyed. Every 

 author is voiced alike. There 

 is the same theme, similar 

 treatment, and one uniform 

 arrangement. Each book as- 

 pires to be a "complete" 

 treatise, and every one is oracular. There 

 follow, by rote, the biology of the fish, 

 his habits and characteristics, and "when, 

 how and where, to capture him," concluding 

 with some wild anecdote or bit of poetry by 



way of a snapper. If any variation is at- 

 tempted, it runs into the speculative and 

 mysterious. The more abstruse and em- 

 pirical the treatise is, the more eminent be- 

 comes the philosopher; and the stronger his 

 "pull" on the credulity of his readers, the 

 higher the price of the book and the wider 

 the play of his fancy. Yet the guild of 

 anglers has been listening to fascinating 

 platitudes with rapt consideration for eight- 

 een centuries. Strange that so much in- 

 spiration can be drawn from a single theme ! 

 But is it not time that we had a new version ? 

 I have had faith that a master spirit might 

 yet appear who would aerate the pool, and 

 place himself in such perfect touch with his 



