ently 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 conjectu