SALMON

FISHING

BY NORVAL.

ON THE TAY.

Ever since the beginning of the season the weather has been greatly against fishing; almost every day the winds have been roaring and blowing, and the waters pouring and roaring; and when it did come a genial day now and then, the river was so much swollen by the previous floods it was always in a very unfit state for fishing. One of the floods was the greatest that has been in the Tay since 1847. It destroyed a great deal of property all along the banks of the river. A great many of the kelts must have gone down to the sea with the heavy floods, which gives hopes of good fishing in the autumn, although the river has not shown much sport as yet. Loch Tay has done very well, and better sport is expected, so soon as the weather moderates and the water gets a little lower. There appears to be plenty of fish in the Loch, and as a rule they are very large. One of the most successful anglers on the Loch has been the Countess of Breadalbane, who is a keen and accomplished fisher. On Saturday, the 7th March, her Ladyship was out on the preserved water at Kenmore; and although the day was very rough and stormy, her Ladyship was successful in landing, after a hard half-hour's battle, a splendid salmon of 28lbs. On Monday, the 9th, her ladyship was again on the Loch, and had magnificent sport, killing to her own rod five splendid salmon. Their weights were, 28 lbs., 281b., 20lb., 20lbs., and 171bs.-in all 1134lbs. On the 11th her Ladyship was out, and ran eight fish, landing five of them. One was a large kelt, and the other four splendid clean salmon. One of them was a magnificent fish weighing 34lbs., the heaviest fish killed on the Loch this season. The weights of the other three were 20lbs., 20lbs., and 17lbs. Next day the Countess was on the Loch, and killed two salmon-22lbs. and 174lbs. Such splendid fishing by a lady we think has never been recorded in any sporting annals; and we don't think even the strongest denouncers of Mr. John Stuart Mill's opinions could have the conscience to refuse a vote to a lady who has the nerve to land a 34lb. salmon. We have seen a male cockney who had two votes nearly out of his mind trying to land a 151b. salmon. The Earl of Breadalbane has also been very fortunate this season, having had capital sport every day he has been out. On Monday, 2nd March, his Lordship ran eleven clean fish, and killed nine of them, all in first-rate condition. The other two were lost by the wings of the phantom minnows cutting the gut of the casting-line. The weights of the nine salmon killed were 14lbs., 24 lbs., 27lbs., 21lbs., 17lbs., 20lbs., 21lbs., 31lbs., and 183lbs.-in all, 1934lbs. The day was stormy in the early part of it, but was mild and beautiful towards evening. Next day his Lordship was again on the Loch, and killed three salmon21lbs., 20lbs., and 21 lbs.

At Killin end of the Loch good sport has been got. Mr. Ashly Dodd killed four salmon on the preserved water on Monday, March 2nd. They weighed 15 lbs., 20lbs., 74lbs., and 16lbs.-in all, 58lbs. He also landed one kelt. Next day he was out again, and killed two fish ;

one of them 28lbs., the other 15lbs. On Friday, the 6th, he killed one of 23 lbs., and on Monday, the 9th, one of 24lbs. On Tuesday, the 10th, he killed one of 171bs.; next day, one; and on the 16th a splendid fish of 27lbs. On Thursday, the 5th, Captain Knapp, in Mr. Dodd's second boat, killed one fish, 224lbs. ; and on Tuesday, the 10th, one of 25lbs. On Tuesday, the 3rd, Mr. Scott, Auchline House, was out and killed four salmon, weighing 15lbs., 20lbs., 20lbs., and 26lbs. On Wednesday he killed one, 21lbs. ; next day one of 20lbs.; and on Saturday one of 25lbs. ; and on Tuesday, the 10th, he had four fish21lbs., 20lbs, 18lbs., and 18lbs.

The gentlemen at Auchmore House have also had good sport. On Tuesday, the 3rd, they killed two fish, 27lbs. and 14lbs. On Friday, the 6th, they had one of 23lbs., and next day two, 20lbs. and 21lbs. On Monday, the 9th, they landed a large kelt, which seemed to like being hooked, as in less than five minutes after it had been returned to the water it was on the second line. The boatman, Donald Anderson, cleverly swung it into the boat by the tail, unhooked it, and set it free On Tuesday, the 6th, the same party had two fish-26lbs.

once more. and 15lbs.

The Killin Hotel Water (M'Pherson's) has also yielded good sport. On Tuesday, the 3rd, one gentleman residing there killed two fish, 10lbs. and 84lbs. The same day Mr. Barnet was out from the hotel, and killed three very fine fish (25lbs., 20lbs., and 21 lbs.), and Captain Lumsdaine killed one of 20lbs. Six fish were, therefore, killed on the hotel water on Tuesday. If such sport as this continues to be got, we should think Mr. M'Pherson's hotel will soon become a favourite haunt for salmon-fishers during the spring months. On Wednesday three salmon were killed on the hotel water (14lbs., 16lbs., and 18lbs.). On Friday Mr. Holmes was out on the hotel water, and killed one of 20lbs.; on Monday, one of 15lbs.; and on Tuesday, two of 20lbs. and 17lbs. It is observed that there are not nearly so many kelts in the Loch this season as in former seasons. Last year, as many were caught in one day as have been seen all this season.

Although the rod-fishing on the river Tay has been very poor, owing to the flooded state of the water, the net-fishing has been very good. So far as the spring fishing has gone, it has been highly successful; and on many of the upper stations it has been superior to any spring season for the last thirty years. On one station, near Stanley, the average weekly take has been upwards of ninety fish, and the returns of other tacksmen have been equally gratifying. The tenants on the lower waters-that is, all fishings lying below the Bridge of Perthhave also had a good spring fishing, many of them having on several occasions a weekly return of 100 fish.

The following are the details of the rod-fishing, as far as we have heard: One fish was taken at Castle Menzies, on Wednesday, the 4th March. At Grantully, on Saturday, the 7th, two fish were killed-one of 11lbs., and one of 8lbs. At Kinnaird, on Wednesday, the 4th, a nice little fish of 9lbs. was killed; at Dalquise, on Monday, the 9th, one of 18lbs. At Dunkeld, on Saturday, the 7th, one fish of 11lbs. was killed.; at Eastwood, on Monday, the 9th, one of 10lbs. On Murthly, same day, one of 18lbs. was killed. At Mechlevin, on Wednesday, the 4th, Mr. M'Intosh was out, and killed one fish of

19lbs. and landed eight kelts. Balathie Water was fished on Wednesday, the 4th, and eleven kelts landed, but no clean fish. On the same water, on Monday, the 9th, one fish of 20lbs. was killed, and twenty kelts landed. At Burnmouth, on Saturday, the 7th, one fish of 211bs. was killed, and a lot of kelts landed. On Tuesday, the 3rd, on the Stanley Water, Mr. Dundas, Edinburgh, killed two fish of 10lbs. and 22lbs. The best day's sport we have heard of on the river was got by Lord Stormont on Friday, the 13th, when he killed three beautiful salmon.

Some good trout-fishing has been got in the Isla, but no salmon. The Tummel has not yet been in ply this season, owing to the floods; but one fine fish of 25lbs. has been taken in it. The rod-fishing on the Dee has been quite the reverse of the Tay, splendid sport having been obtained all the season, and the river still swarming with freshrun fish. Some anglers have killed as many as ten clean fish in a day. The French newspapers speak of an enormous salmon which the Rhine fishers have sent to Paris. It is said to be about 9 feet long, and to weigh 330lbs., and was sold for about £44. This should be inquired into, for the sake of natural history, as it is four times larger than any salmon on record.

THE ANGLER'S

Merrily, merrily breaks the day;
The birds are singing their matin lay,
And the sun is throwing his earliest beam
O'er the sleepy sky, in the misty gleam.
Oh! Nature awaking is sweet to see,
And the angler's lot should daily be.

Then up!-up!-and away with me

SONG.

To the stream-to the stream-to the stream!

Away, away! ere the dew takes wing

From the buds where 'tis softly slumbering.

Away, away! ere afar, like a dream,

The night-breeze is hurried by Sol's growing beam.
Away! for the hour's so balmy and still,

The angler may do with the game what he will.
Then away--away! and we'll try our skill

At the stream-at the stream!-at the stream!

Oh! and then, when night and his glittering train
Cover the mountain and flowery plain,

How sweet to bie by the young moon's beam
To our homely hearth and its welcoming gleam,

And joyously tell, as we sip by its light,

Our "night-cap" of friendship to warm through the night,
Of the sport of the day, and the weight of the freight

We have drawn from the stream-from the stream.

J. G.

LITERATURE.

THE VARIATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS UNDER DOMESTICATION. By Charles Darwin, M.A.. F.R.S., &c. In two Volumes; with Illustrations. London: John Murray, Albemarle-street. 1868.

The author at the commencement of this work has brought before the readers of it the most prominent points advanced by him in relation to the "Origin of Species," a prudent course to have adopted, as the theories subsequently propounded can be more readily comprehended and reasoned over.

Ardent in his researches, daring in his speculations, Mr. Darwin is yet very deeply impressed with the importance of a subject that demands great caution and care in the search of truthful data, and which we admit he exercises. "In scientific investigations," he says, "it is permitted to invent any hypothesis; and if it explains various large and independent classes of facts, it rises to the rank of a well-grounded theory." Acting upon the liberty thus conceded, he hazards his conjectures, arrays the formula collected, and then proceeds to work out his problems, combining much interesting information with many matters familiar to us.

Mr. Darwin evinces a desire to prove rather than to persuade, as though to ensure, page by page, paragraph by paragraph, a conviction that certain propositions are firmly based; surmises, conceptions, or other approximates towards conviction, as matters of mere opinion having such place and right assigned them, and no more, as their several degrees of importance may demand. Those things he deems obviously decreed by Supreme Wisdom to be concealed from man's comprehension he does not venture rashly to account for; and he certainly treads with measured pace the labyrinths he has entered, with patient zeal searching out those intricacies which he labours to make plain paths to those who will give heed and follow him.

That every living thing on the earth was created originally, as we now behold it, no thinking person can contend. By repeated crosses a variety or a species may be made to differ from or completely to absorb another, while the impracticability of tracing back descent frequently must arise from the extinction of intermediate forms, and thus we behold, as it were, a fresh creation.

"The paramount power, whether applied by man to the formation of domestic breeds, or by nature to the production of species," is termed Selection-man selecting varying individuals, and again selecting their varying offsprings, until he attains his object. All nature is at war, we are reminded; the strongest prevailing ultimately, and the weakest failing, forms in myriads having disappeared from the face of the earth, and a ceaseless struggle for existence recurring again and again through countless ages up to the present.

The preservation of species during this ceaseless battle of life which possess advantages in structure, constitution, or instinct, Mr. Darwin calls "Natural Selection," and he remarks that Mr. Herbert Spencer has well expressed the same idea by "Survival of the Fittest."

It is obvious, as the author says, that although man has no power to alter the absolute conditions of life by changing the climate of a country, or adding a new element to the soil, he can remove an animal

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or plant from one climate or soil to another, and difference of temperature and food will then in themselves be sure to lead to mutations. "It is an error," he declares, "to speak of man's tampering with nature and causing variability. If organic beings had not possessed an inherent tendency to vary, man could have done nothing; some naturalists being of opinion that in a state of nature itself species undergo a change."

Mr. Darwin contends that, although man does not (in the strict sense he means), cause variability, being unable even to prevent it, he can select from, preserve, and accumulate the variations given him by the hand of Nature in any way he thinks desirable, improving and altering a breed in accordance with a preconceived idea; and by thus adding up, variations, often so slight as to be imperceptible to an uneducated eye, effect wonderful results. It can also be clearly shown that man, without any intention or thought of improving a breed, by preserving in each successive generation the individuals which he prizes most, and by destroying the worthless, slowly, though surely, induces great changes; and therefore we can understand how it is that domesticated breeds show adaptation to his wants and pleasures.

Even barbarians closely note the qualities of their dogs, Mr. Oldfield stating that several instances have been known amongst the aborigines of Australia of the father killing his own infant, that the mother might suckle the much-prized puppy of the European kangaroo dog.

We were alluding to climate having influence over animals. The Thibet mastiff, when it is brought down from the Himalaya mountains to Kashmir, loses its fine wool. The shepherd-dogs of Angona have fair fleecy hair, the thickness of the fleece being attributed to the severe winters, and the silky lustre to the hot summers. The English bulldog, on the authority of Dr. Falconer, has been known, when first brought into India, to pin down an elephant by its trunk; and yet not only will it fall off, after two or three generations in pluck and ferocity through the enervating climate, but lose the under-hung character of the lower jaw, the muzzle becoming finer and the body lighter, no crossing with native dogs having occurred to account for this deterioration. The Rev. R. Everest obtained a brace of setters, born in India, which perfectly resembled their imported parents. He raised several litters from them in Delhi, taking the most stringent precautions to prevent any crossing; but he was unsuccessful in obtaining a single young dog like the parents in shape or size. Their nostrils were more contracted, their noses more pointed, their size inferior, and their limbs more slender; and yet this was only the second breed.

The sudden degeneracy here mentioned is very extraordinary, for spaniels after eight or nine generations, and without a cross from Europe, are stated by Captain Williamson in his "Oriental Field Sports," to have been as good as their ancestors, Youatt declaring that the setter is evidently the large spaniel improved to his peculiar size and beauty, and taught another way of marking his game (crossed probably, as it may have been, with the pointer to attain that object). Captain Williamson further informs us that hounds are the most rapid in their decline, pointers and greyhounds quickly following them. Indeed, several breeds, it is said not only deteriorate in their forms and faculties, but cannot live in the East.