48 Bass, Pike, and Perch 



The broken end of the snell still shows a portion 

 of shellac coating." 



" I never thought of that before," remarked 

 Shiner. " No doubt many flies are cracked off 

 from the same cause." 



" Without a doubt, as you say. I know a lady," 

 continued the Doctor, " who, as Walton says, 

 ' has a fine hand,' and who superintends an ex- 

 tensive artificial fly establishment — and who has 

 written the best book ever published on the sub- 

 ject of artificial flies — who personally inspects 

 every fly turned out by her tyers. And, more- 

 over, she varnishes the head of every fly herself, 

 in order that not the least particle of shellac may 

 touch the snell. Such careful supervision and 

 honest work, to quote Walton again, ' like virtue, 

 bring their own reward,' " and the Doctor resumed 

 his casting with another fly. 



" Well, Doctor, I sympathize with you ; but 

 my snells are clear-quill and no varnish. I may 

 throw off a minnow once in a while by a very long 

 cast, but it is soon replaced, and costs nothing. 

 And, speaking of casting, I observed that you 

 made half a dozen casts to reach yonder rock but 

 sixty feet away, while I placed my minnow, by 

 a single cast, a hundred feet in the other direc- 



