SALMON-FISHING.
Salmon-Fishing. By W. Earl Hodgson. (A. and C. Black. 7s. 6d. net.)—Of books on fishing there is no end, and we desire none. Almost alone among the sports, it allows a man to prose over little exploits, to say what has been said a thousand times, to attempt familiar raptures, and yet keep boredom from his pages. For ourselves, there is scarcely any angling literature— from Walton and Sir Edward Grey down to "Fishing Notes" in the Field—which we do not read with avidity. Mr. Earl Hodgson has written about salmon a book of the same type as he once wrote about trout. It is all pleasant, well-informed gossip, illustrated with some good drawings and some admirable pistol of flies. Scientific questions, such as the feeding of salmon in fresh water, are touched on with lightness and good sense, and there is no lack of practical advice. Some useful chapters give a summary of the present conditions for salmon of the chief rivers of the United Kingdom. But useful as the book is, it is more enter- taining than useful, and we like Mr. Hodgson best when he gossips about his experiences on the riverside, and expatiates in a charming mock-heroic manner on the amenities of the sport. It is a strange fact, which psychologists would do well to note, that scarcely one writer on angling ever writes badly, and most write uncommonly well.
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