March  .         .        >  •      ,  .29

April     .  ,  .27

May      .         .         .         .  .     2     o|

June      .        .       •'.  '••;••.  .     i     6
July       .         .         .         .  i     2^

August .         .         .        . '  .15

September     .        .        .  -23!


SALMON-FISHING  215

But  in  addition  to  the  market  value  of  this  excellent  fish
there  must  be  reckoned  its  value  for  sport.  Of  all  the  prizes
Salmon-  ^or  which  anglers  contend  none  approaches  the
angling.  salmon  in  nobility.  It  is  the  dream  of  every  lad
who  handles  a  rod  that  some  day  he  may  land  a  salmon,
and  it  is  a  dream  of  that  rare  class  whereof  the  realisation
fulfils  anticipation.  Moreover,  in  a  material,  as  truly  as  in  a
metaphorical,  sense,  it  is  a  golden  dream  ;  because,  whereas
industrial  pollution  and  excessive  netting  have  greatly  reduced
the  extent  and  contents  of  our  salmon  rivers,  the  sport  has
risen  very  rapidly  in  favour  in  recent  years,  and  there  are
probably  fifty  would-be  salmon-fishers  now  for  every  one  that
plied  the  craft  fifty  years  ago.  Rents,  in  consequence,  have
gone  up  in  proportion  to  the  demand  for  fishing  water,  and  it
is  probably  no  over-estimate  which  places  the  average  cost  of
salmon  landed  with  the  rod  at  from  £5  to  ^10  apiece,  probably
nearer  the  latter  than  the  former  figure.  Of  course,  with  luck,
an  angler  may  have  good  sport  at  a  far  lower  price  than  this  ;
but  let  him  fairly  reckon  the  good  and  ill  luck  together,  and  it
will  be  found  that  his  fish  have  cost  somewhere  between  the
figures  quoted,  either  to  himself  or  to  his  host.  Extreme
instances  might  be  recalled  where  the  cost  has  been  far  greater.
