not infrequently misses the fly and gets hooked somewhere in the body) takes much longer to land.  The other method of using the fly, harling, which is practised on a few big rivers, consists in trailing the fly behind a boat rowed backward and forwards across the stream and dropping gradually downwards.  Fly-fishing for salmon is also practised on some lakes, into which the fish run.  On lakes the boat drifts slowly along a “beat,” while the angler casts diagonally over the spots where salmon are wont to lie.  Salmon may also be caught by “mid-water fishing,” with a natural bait either spun or trolled and with artificial spinning-baits of different kinds, and by “bottom-fishing” with prawns, shrimps and worms.  Spinning is usually practised when the water is too high or too coloured for the fly; trolling is seldom employed, but is useful for exploring pools which cannot be fished by spinning or with the fly; the prawn is a valuable lure in low water and when fish are unwilling to rise; while the worm is killing at all states of the river, but except as a last resource is not much in favour.  There are a few waters where salmon have the reputation of not taking a fly at all; in them spinning or prawning are the usual modes of fishing.  But most anglers, wherever possible, prefer to use the fly.  The rod for the alternative methods is generally shorter and stiffer than the fly-rod, though made of like material.  Twelve to fourteen feet represents about the range of choice.  Outside the British Islands the salmon-fisher finds the headquarters of his sport in Europe in Scandinavia and Iceland, and in the New World in some of the waters of Canada and Newfoundland.

[Footnote 1:  The precise date when silkworm gut (now so important a feature of the angler’s equipment) was introduced is obscure.  Pepys, in his Diary (1667), mentions “a gut string varnished over” which “is beyond any hair for strength and smallness” as a new angling secret which he likes “mightily.”  In the third edition (1700) of Chetham’s Vade-Mecum, already cited, appears an advertisement of the “East India weed, which is the only thing for trout, carp and bottom-fishing.”  Again, in the third edition of Nobbes’s Art of Trolling (1805), in the supplementary matter, appears a letter signed by J. Eaton and G. Gimber, tackle-makers of Crooked Lane (July 20, 1801), in which it is stated that gut “is produced from the silkworm and not an Indian weed, as has hitherto been conjectured....”  The word “gut” is employed before this date, but it seems obvious that silkworm gut was for a long time used under the impression that it was a weed, and that its introduction was a thing of the 17th century.  It is probable, however, that vegetable fibre was used too; we believe that in some parts of India it is used by natives to this day.  Pepys’ “minikin” was probably cat-gut.]

Land-locked Salmon.—­The land-locked salmon (Salmo salar sebago) of Canada and the lakes of Maine is, as its name implies, now regarded by scientists as merely a land-locked form of the salmon.  It does not often attain a greater size than 20 ft, but it is a fine fighter and is highly esteemed by American anglers.  In most waters it does not take a fly so well as a spinning-bait, live-bait or worm.  The methods of angling for it do not differ materially from those employed for other Salmonidae.