SPRING SALMON
The excitement along the river at this time of year ebbs and flows as anglers take account of weather reports and water levels at known marks, for salmon, come upriver by fits and startsand much depends on temperature and flood. The wind from the south-west promises rain, and while the river rises or falls between showers the talk in fishing hotels is punctuated by the rap of knuckles on the barometer and the sound of hobs on flags as one or another of the brethren clumps out to assess chances. Cilowledgeable old hands suck their pipes and talk about kelts. Those with leisure enough are reconciled to waiting, while those with little conceal their impatience as best they can. Word may come overnight that someone has had a fish in tidal water and the bailiff reports another a mile upstream from that. Is the weather right and the river in condition? There is no answer, for the snug little parlour is deserted and the rods are missing from the hall. In the evening, when dusk has settled, someone
will have a spring-run fish to prove that salmon are running back to all the old familiar places.
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