Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/248

234 this fine fish. Many other kinds of nets and seines are also used, some more general, others more local. In some rocky rivers Salmon are taken with the fish-spear, a mode of fishing that requires a quick eye, and a true hand. And numbers fall before the skill and science of the enthusiastic fly-fisher, who counts all other delights joyless to the excitement of his favourite sport.

In Mr. Jesse's very interesting "Scenes of Country Life," there is a letter from a nobleman, who had been on a fishing excursion into the highlands of Scotland, on the subject of fly-fishing for Salmon in the sea. From this communication we make the following extracts. The particular locality is not indicated.

"As far as I am aware there is only one spot in the neighbourhood where fish have been so taken. About four miles to the south of this place, a small river discharges itself into a creek or estuary, which formerly extended about six miles inland, but half of it has been reclaimed by carrying a mound from shore to shore. Within about a mile of the mouth of this creek, the main channel of the tide and the river approaches the south shore, and from the point which commands this channel, the fly is used with murderous effect at half ebb tide. Having a yacht and boats at my disposal, I anchored the latter two days since in the channel, and I never saw men so astonished as some of my Harwich sailors were with the spectacle which presented itself, as they had never seen a Salmon except on a fishmonger's stall. The air, rather than the water, was alive with Salmon and Sea-trout of all sizes, jumping