FISH AND FISHING.* THREE books on fish and fishing that
have lately appeared deserve to be recommended to our readers' attention. Mr. P. D. Malloch's We-History and Habits of the Salmon, Sea- Trout, Trout, and other Fresh-water Fish will chiefly attract them by the remarkable series of over two hundred photo- graphs with which it is illustrated. Mr. Malloch's position as an expert in fishery matters and as manager of the Tay Salmon Fisheries Company entitles him to write with authority. That portion of the book which deals with the Salmonidae is exceedingly interesting. When we get to the perch, roach, or minnow the information given is meagre. On the salmon, whose habits, breeding, and diseases occupy about half the volume, a variety of noteworthy facts are set down. As every one knows, extensive and careful experiments in marking molts with silver-wire through the dorsal fin have been made on the Tay since May, 1905. We can only summarise the results by saying that it has now been shown that smelts of an ounce or two sometimes do not return to the river for nearly three years. These fish are then five years old, weigh from thirty to forty pounds, and of course have never spawned. Mr. Malloch thinks that the proportion of salmon which spawn more than once is small. It is strange to think of a fish coming up a river in prime condition in October, remaining there seventeen months, and returning to the sea without having fed. Salmon run in winter and spring to spawn in the following November, though there may be little appearance of spawn in them. Did they not start so early, frosts and floods and low water might often prevent them reaching the head-waters in time. An interesting series of magnified scales shows how the salmon's age may be deter- mined by the rings, of which sixteen appear to be added for each year of life. But others besides Mr. Malloch deserve credit for working at this subject. Some exceptionally hideous photographs of fish overgrown with saprolegnia illustrate the chapter on diseases, and there is a curious series of deformed trout. Mr. Malloch writes clearly and succinctly. He quotes facts from his own experience, and is never dogmatic. The book cannot fail to interest the general reader who cares to learn something about the natural history of the salmon family.
In Minor Tactics of the Chalk-Stream, by Mr. G. E. M. Skues, we have an excellent fishing book which deserves to be attentively studied by every South Country angler. The author's articles over the signature "Seaforth and Soforth " will be familiar to all readers of the Field. Mr. Skues is bold enough to fall foul, in the most courteous and convincing fashion, of the high priests of the dry-fly cult. His experience of the Itchen goes back many years, and his success as an angler is undeniable. His book is the most instructive and lucid treatise on the fine art of catching_chalk-stream trout that has been published since Mr. Halford's great work. The two writers represent the opposing schools. Mr. Halford is a leader of the dry-fly purists. Mr. Skues believes that a sunk fly fished, of course, up-stream and offered skilfully to a feeding fish is often most deadly on the clearest Hampshire rivers. To do this with success is, in fact, a higher and more difficult branch of the fly-fisher's art than to hook trout when they are taking the floating duns. To most persons " wet-fly " means raking the water with large sunk flies fished down-stream. We need not say that Mr. Shies does not recommend so barbarous and old-fashioned a practice as that. His " wet-fly " is in fact the most artful dry-fly allowed to sink as it passes over the trout. Let not the fisherman be disturbed by the fact that there are days and hours when it has not a chance against the dry-fly ; for there are days and hours when the dry-fly has not a chance against it. Of the truth of much that Mr. Skues advances we have long been convinced ; and his chapter on " The Ethics of the Wet-fly" is a good defence against the cry of poaching that may be raised by the purists. Other chapters which merit to be studied deal with " Subaqueous Happenings in Nature," " Medicine for Bulgers," and " The Negotiation of Tellers." These are subjects on which the most skilful • (1) Life-History and Habits of the Salmon, Sea-Trost, Trout, and other Fresh- water Fish. By P.O. Malloch. London A. and C. Black. [10s. 6d. net.]— (2) Minor Tactics of the Chalk-Stream. By G. E. M. Skues (" Seaforth and &forth "). Same publishers. [Se. 6d. net.)—(8) Ancient Angling Authors. By W. J. Turret'. With Illustrations. London : Gurney and Jackson. [3a. 6d. net.]
angler may be prqfitably instructed.. We only hope that the teaching will lead to success. It seems to us, if we must criticise anything, that Mr. Skues attributes WO great powers of discriminating shades of colour to the trout. Also that the disadvantages of flies dressed on gut instead of eyed hooks far outweigh any advantages. To tell the truth, the best-tied fly is so very unlike the real insect that it is a mystery how a trout can be deceived. It is some years since any didactic writer on fishing has published a book that was so well worth writing. With this we must end, commending Mr. Skues's book especially to those who feel inclined to disagree with his views and despise his teaching.
All fishermen with any taste for ancient fishing lore will read with interest Mr. W. J. Turrell's little book on Ancient Angling Authors. Not only does he give descriptions of the classics and extracts from a number of more or less rare books, but also some accounts and criticisms of the men who wrote them. Mr. Turrell, as he proceeds, is also careful to point out when each improvement in fishing tackle, jointed rods, winches, rod-rings, and the like, is first described. Silkworm gut, it may be noted, was first men- tioned in 1724. The use of it in fishing came from Italy. Mr. Turrell's list really begins, of course, with the Treatyse of ifysaynge wyth an Angle, first printed in 1496, but possibly written long before by some monkish author. A century elapsed before Leonard Mascall's A Bootee of Fishing was published in 1590. In 1600 came John Taverner's rare work, which is mainly on pisciculture ; then in 1613 a charm- ing poem, " The Secrets of Angling," long after discovered to be by John •Dennys. Gervase Markham, an arch- plagiarist, began publishing his numerous works in 1614. The Art of Angling, by Thomas Barker, some of whose remarks were copied with acknowledgment by Walton, appeared in 1651. This classic writer, about whom so much has been published, is somewhat shortly dealt with by Mr. Turrell, anxious to pass on to less-known worthies. Then follow Franck, the Cromwellian trooper Soho wrote The Northern Memoirs, Yenables, Nicholas Cox, Cotton, William Gilbert, James Chetham, and Nobbes, "the father of trollers." The eighteenth century produced a plentiful crop, and Mr. Turrell ends with Thomas Best, whose Concise Treatise appeared in 1787. The want of originality is strange in these early authors, and Mr. Turrell draws attention to a most curious series of flagrant piratical thefts. The rarer works have been carefully studied in the Bodleian Library, and five title-pages are reproduced by photography. The character of anglers has altered for the better since this was written in 1726 :— " For most anglers generally take a pleasure in deluding young beginners, and leading them astray, by sending them to such places, as are unfrequented by fish, and by telling them that such baits are proper, when they know the contrary."
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